Romance Dusk
by Shambles X
Summary: Follow the adventures of Van Niko and his crew as they search for the greatest treasure of all time One Piece. Oc's Accepted
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Haha well this is my second attempt at submitting this (Something went very wrong the first time) I hope you like it. Also please let me know what you think by reviewing =) Enjoy. PS: The title is a play on the title 'Romance Dawn' Which is the short story that lead to the creation of one piece, thought it would be cool. =p

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_Twenty years have passed since Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew found the magisterial treasure One Piece._

_Monkey D. Luffy has been executed, but as he knelt, in the place his predecessor had before him, he said with a wide smile, "My treasure is yours for the taking, but you'll have to find it first; I left everything I own in __**One Piece."**_

_Since then enthusiastic Adventurers of all race colour and creed travel the oceans once again, searching for the most Glorious treasure imaginable._

_**Prologue**_

"Are you Captain Ayanne?" The 6"1 boy stood with a smile on his face, his violate eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

"No kid, I'm not but I am the man who is gonna stop you from seeing him!" the man's jaw dropped as he looked up to see the boy had gone. The boy had, in fact, just strolled past him mid sentence and headed towards the large entrance.

"Who the hell do you think you are kid!?" the man shouted darting in front of the boy and towering over him in an imposing fashion.

The boy looked up at the brown haired man's middle-aged, scarred, face, which was now turning a bright shade of scarlet as the anger at the child's insolence washed over him. The Boy's own medium length spiky blue hair gently flowed in the breeze as he fed a cookie to, what appeared to be, a silver lizard which opened a sleepy eye to accept its snack only to fall back into its previous slumber.

"Oh, I'm sorry I thought I'd mentioned it." The boy started with a big grin, "I'm Van, Van Niko, and I am here to see Captain Ayanne so if you could just move out the way..." the large man looked unimpressed.

"Get lost kid the captains not taking any visitors, you ain't coming past." He chuckled to himself in a condescending manner. Van walked past him mid sentence once again, a vein erupted in his temple as his face glowed with rage. "You damned brat!" the man roared as he drew his six swords (three in each hand) and lunged at the blue haired teen.

Van glanced back and threw out an arm, "Mik!" he yelled excitedly, the sleeping lizard on his shoulder instantly flashed open its eyes.

Inside the building the 'Carbon Pirates' had amassed around the front door, as they had heard shouting and the unsheathing of weaponry a minute or so before. Garu Shinji was their best swordsman so it shouldn't be an issue, but better to be safe than sorry.

Suddenly the door exploded into a million tiny pieces as Garu the brown haired master swordsman blasted through it, blowing away the pirates surrounding the entrance, before bouncing across the hard stone floor unconscious.

Through the smoke a blue haired silhouette emerged, stepping over the bodies of the carbon pirates, a sleeping lizard on his shoulder. Van grinned innocently, his left hand running through his cobalt hair.

"Hey, is Captain Ayanne here?"

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**A/N:** Well thats the prologue sorted next chapter should be up soon as it is finished, it just needs tweeking slightly I think. Hope you like it, either way please review. I need Characters for my crew (i find it makes the story so much better when other people create characters for it) so all submissions are more than welcome and I will try my utmost to find somewhere for them.

Name: (Full Name)

Age:

Gender:

Specialty/Position: (Thief, Marksman, Navigator, Swordsman? What is your Character good at and what would their position on the crew be?)

Race: (Please, Canon One Piece Races only)

Devil Fruit/Weapon/Attacks: (Devil Fruit are not required. Please make a list of attacks/weapons used)

Physical Appearance: (Be as descriptive as possible, please)

History: (Again, descriptive is good)

Personality: (Include positive traits, negative traits, hobbies, fears and whatever else you can think about.

Likes:

Dislikes:

Dream:

Other: (Anything else you can think to add)

Thank you again. Until next time =)

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	2. Chapter 1 VN vs CA

**A/N:**Well here is Chapter 1 hope you like it, this is my first story so still getting into the groove of things. As before any reviews are appreciated.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own One piece... I would have much nicer stuff if i did X )

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**Chapter 1.**

**Van Niko vs. 'The Titan Captain' Ayanne.**

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Van stood in the doorway to the pirates' hideout, enemies scattered about the floor from his 'entrance'. Vans 18 year old frame was clad in a tattered, red, unzipped hoodie which showed his bare chest and part of a tattoo which went from his right shoulder down to his wrist partly visible due to his rolled up sleeve and a black and white chequered scarf wrapped round his neck, covering his mouth slightly, which trailed down to his knees, he also wore a pair of black cargo shorts and had bare, slightly dirty feet.

"Hellooooo... are you here Captain Ayanne?" he echoed throughout the building hands cupped round his mouth.

A few of the scattered pirates clambered uneasily to their feet and raised their weapons, surrounding Van completely.

"Let him through!" a gruff deep voice boomed through the hall. The pirates lowered their weapons and stood aside.

"Hehe now you've done it kid" Garu sneered raising himself from the floor momentarily before collapsing back into unconsciousness.

Van headed towards the end of the hall which the voice had come from, the pirates that had previously surrounded him followed.

"Captain Ayanne?" Van inquired fairly confident this was the individual he had been searching for.

"Yes, that's me, what do you want?" Ayanne was a tall monstrous looking man with what appeared to be a solid grey exoskeleton that covered his entire body; the only real facial features were his glowing green eyes and the diamond grill like teeth. He sat in a thrown like chair sizing up the blue haired boy before him.

"I want you to create an awesome ship for me of course! I hear you are the best Shipwright around, not to mention having the reputation of being invincible, how could I resist coming to find you? So, what do ya say?" Van held out a friendly hand, still grinning.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." The grey figure shook with laughter. "Why would I do that for you pip squeak? You don't look like much." The captain leant forward staring down his 'guest'.

A bigger grin emerged across Van's cheeky face. "Ok then fight me! If I win, you build me a ship."

"And when I win?" Ayanne said leaning forward slightly more.

"If you win you can have him." He gestured towards the lizard on his shoulder.

"Why on earth would I want your lizard?" the grey golem snapped, narrowing his eyes at Van.

"Mik's not a lizard, he's a pigmy dragon." The golems emerald eyes widened.

'_A dragon! Those things are rare, and worth a fortune'_the captain thought to himself rising out of his chair. "Ok kid you've got yourself a deal!"

Van and Captain Ayanne stood sizing each other up encircled by Ayanne's crew to form a makeshift arena.

"You ready kid?"

"I sure am." The grey clad Captain smiled at this reply, this kid didn't know about his devil fruit the 'ka-bon ka-bon no mi' which allowed him to create carbon based armour and weaponry stronger than steel.

The appointed adjudicator raised his hands "Ready, Fight!"

The Captain instantly lunged at Van, hands trailing behind him, fingers turned to razor sharp claws.

"Mik!" Van woke the dragon once more, his eyes opened instantly. The dragon scrambled down Vans right arm and towards his hand, as Van grabbed him the Dragon straightened out its body and tail as it narrowed and elongated, at which point a curved blade protruded from its mouth completing its transformation into a naginata. Van swiftly swung it elegantly towards the charging Captains chest, it scraped along the Carbon armour leaving not even a single scratch, Ayanne continued his attack which Van quickly avoided as he spun round to face the hulking grey opponent, meanwhile Mik had changed into a dragon headed chain which whipped Ayanne's feet from under him and, before he hit the floor, changed again into an enormous Hammer in the shape of Mik's head, coming down with a monumental thud, sending tremors through the floor and shaking many of the surrounding crew off their feet.

"Pretty impressive dragon you have there." The completely unharmed, armoured figure chuckled rising from the crater in the obliterated floor.

"Thanks, he ate the 'buki buki no mi' which enables him to turn into any weapon I teach him" the dragon had at this point returned to its original form sitting on Van's hand as he talked to his opponent, if you didn't know better you would have thought the dragon looked almost smug.

"It's time to finish this" Van proclaimed confidently.

"There is nothing that can stand up to my invincible carbon armour, time to die little man!" Ayanne turned his arm into a blade and darted forwards.

Mik once again turned into a chain and took out the carbon legs from under the charging juggernaught with a more complex motion than before and caused him to spin, crashing into the ground.

"Mik now!" the chain wrapped round Van's hands binding them together as it morphed into a two handed blade materialising from the Dragon head hilt which covered Vans arms, Van pointed the blade towards the floor as flames erupted from the dragons mouth rocketing him towards the ceiling, He slashed a clean hole in the roof and manoeuvred himself above his weapon as flames engulfed the blade and pulsed from the hilt propelling him down towards the grounded Captain with incredible speed.

"Dragon Driver!" the flames exploded outwards as the blade made contact with its target spitting out the surrounding crew as well as most of the halls floor. When the smoke cleared Van sat cross legged and out of breath gasping for air and sweating profusely, cut all over from the blows his opponent had landed and with a dragon, out cold on its back, atop his head. At the centre of the huge crater lay the Captain still without a mark he rose to his feet and trudged toward the worn out teen raising the blade-arm above his head he prepared to end it and claim his prize.

*_**CRACK! **_*

The Carbon exoskeleton cracked along the chest; spread throughout the body and up the blade, the entire form shattered into dust unveiling a 5"5 green eyed GIRL! Her long blond hair fell down to her shoulders, she was wearing a light blue vest, with a classic Jolly Roger embroiled on the chest, which came down to just above her stomach and tight dark blue cut-off jeans with white sneakers.

"YOU'RE A GIRL!" both Van and the Carbon Pirates exclaimed together.

The girl's eyes widened with the panicked realisation that her secret had been revealed, at which point she felt the punishment that the armour penetrating attack had caused to her ribs she dropped to her knees in both pain and despair. The crew, furious that a girl led them all this time without them realising, stormed out of the building.

"I'm ruined..." her voice seemed far more feminine out of the protective casing, tears started to run down her pale skinned face. "YOU! YOU DID THIS!" her monstrous carbon facade returned as she lunged toward Van grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the cracked wall, she flinched with pain and grabbed her stomach falling back to her knees, the shell shattered once more as she sobbed into her hands.

"Don't worry, you're going to join me and help me find one piece!" Van stood over the heartbroken Captain grinning with his hand outstretched. "So will you be my nakama?" the girl looked up wiping the tears away from her face, she stared at him confused, then, overcome with exhaustion she passed out.

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**A/N:**So that's it I thought I would include a small fight scene early on, more as a practice than anything else =p Sorry its a bit short i need to get used to the difference in length when its transferred from word so I can judge it a bit better. Hope you liked it. Read and Review. Again I will appreciate character submissions as variety is the spice of life and all that = )

ShX


	3. Chapter 2 Fit For a King

**A/N:**Chapter 2, its a bit slow but I hope its OK.

**Disclaimer:**One piece isn't mine. I'm not even Japanese.

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**Chapter 2.**

**A ship fit for a Pirate King.**

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Ayanne's eyes opened briefly as she bumped up and down on the shoulder of the young man carrying her.

"What the hell's that?" she didn't recognise the voice and knew she didn't have the strength to look round.

"I did it!" this voice she did recognise, as Van's, the teenager who had just beaten her and ruined her reputation not five minutes ago.

_Kick him in the crotch! _She thought to herself, willing her limbs to respond... nothing _Dammit!_

"You kidnapped a small girl; well done you will be the hero of pirates everywhere." The anonymous voice commented.

"NO!" Van yelled annoyed at the blatant sarcasm, "this is the new shipwright, the one everyone told us about!"

"She doesn't really look like much..." the voice replied, _I'll show him who doesn't look like much_..._nope still can't move _she thought to herself still unable to muster enough energy.

_Wait, did he just say? New shipwright? I never agreed to that... _consciousness slipped away from her.

"So will she be ok?"

"Yeah she should be, you messed up her ribs pretty bad but she will be fine"

"She has been asleep all day drew, you sure you patched her up properly yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm positive; do you doubt my first aid skills?"

"Man it's been like five days this girl sure can sleep"

"VAN! STOP POKING HER! That won't make her better any faster"

Ayanne woke up, her eyes blurry from sleep; she was in a bed in the cabin of a ship. She heard voices which were now familiar to her.

"No Mik that's not right, it needs to look more like this!" The sun flared her vision as she opened the door and stepped out onto the deck, when her eyes adjusted to the light she saw Van frantically pointing to a poorly drawn image of what looked kind of like some sort of cannon. The confused silver dragon sat scratching its head, not really understanding the doodle at all.

"Ah, the patients finally awa..." Drew stopped mid sentence. "Van! I told you to leave her alone!"

Van turned and burst out laughing rolling on the floor clenching his stomach with one hand pointing at Ayanne with the other, tears flooding from his eyes, his dragon lay next to him in a similar hysteric state.

Ayanne turned to look at her face in the reflection of the cabin window on her face a shaky moustache and glasses had been drawn on, she was not impressed.

"You were pretty tired out" Drew said handing Ayanne a cloth to clean her face. Drew was older than Van he must have been at least 28, he had long hair, the same colour as Vans, and was wearing a white button up shirt, and tight fitting jeans with boots, over this he had a long red jacket with gold pads on the shoulders a gold trim and solid gold buttons. All in all apart from the hair colour he was a stark contrast to Van who looked positively ragged in comparison.

"Hehe sorry about hurting you by the way," Van said apologetically, clutching his head and smiling, "I got a bit to fired up back there"

Ayanne smiled, "I didn't realise you were a girl you see so I thought you could handle it." Van continued. Ayanne's smile quickly turned to anger, "and what the hell is that supposed to mean" she yelled chasing him round the ship's deck.

"Anyway, I believe you owe me a ship?" Van interjected partly to stop the chase.

"We had a deal." Van said attempting to catch his breath after being chased.

"But you have a ship?" Ayanne replied looking around the, actually, quite nicely furnished ship.

"Yeah ...erm ... about that... this...isn't our ship" Van said looking awkwardly at his feet with his hands in his pockets.

"We stole it from a Marine impound dock" Drew interrupted, "we need you to make a new ship out of this one."

Van started grinning again "yeah, and it's gotta be AWESOME!" he yelled, excitedly jumping into the air.

Ayanne looked up at them and smiled, "OK, OK I'll do it but after that, I'm out of here."

As Van and Drew left the ship, the Carbon encased Ayanne began to rip the ship apart.

"You sure we should trust her with the 30 million Berri we got from the treasure on board?" Drew enquired glancing back at Ayanne who was already half way through dismantling the ship.

"Of course" Van said smiling, "She's going to become my nakama, so I have to trust her."

"I hope you know what ya doing 'captain'" Drew replied his voice filled with scepticism.

Several days passed before Van and Drew returned.

"Which one is it?" Drew asked as he looked around the bay.

"Believe me; you will know it when you see it." Ayanne replied, giggling to herself with anticipation.

Van's eyes lit up. "AWESOME!" he jumped into the air before dashing towards a large silver ship, with the dragon head front.

"You like it?" Ayanne looked at Van clambering up the gang plank.

"I love it,~THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU THANK-YOU!~" he sang as he danced around on the deck.

"There's the boys room that's where you two will be sleeping and this is my roo... I mean the girls room" Ayanne said, blushing slightly as she realised her mistake.

"Ha ha so you are coming, I knew you would! That settles it then, there's nothing left but to set sail!" Van leapt up to the wheel, still laughing, he pointed out to sea, "Next stop; Grand Line!"

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**A/N:**So the crew has it's first new addition, Ayanne is one of mine, i had been toying with the idea for a lil while, however she is probably the only new crew member i will create, any other additions will hopefully be yours (In other words Character submissions are welcome). I managed to submit the chapters up to this point quite quickly because i had written them before i had submitted the first chapter from this point on they will take longer as i now have to write them. It may have been smarter to leave a lil gap between submissions to give myself some time, but I am childish and needed to submit them all asap i couldn't wait X ) Reviews please.


	4. Chapter 3 Long Goodbyes

**A/N:**Well here we are again, I had hoped to be done within the week, and I have =) aren't I great (sarcasm). Also I felt the chapters seemed a little short, they seemed SO much longer in word, so here is the longest one. If I am not mistaken it is actually a fair bit longer than the first three combined so good luck =) let me know if its too long in the reviews I am quite worried about that. Hope you like it.

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**Chapter 3.**

**I hate Long Goodbyes Anyway.**

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The dragon headed ship had been sailing for several days now, Ayanne had taken helm and the two blue haired men trained on the main deck.

"No Van. You have to let the feeling flow through you, like this."

"That's what I am doing, isn't it?" Van quickly struck forward with an unusual attack style mimicking his older teacher.

"The movement's right but, you're not focused enough" Drew said looking toward Van who was repeating the same action over and over getting more annoyed the more he did it, "some people just aren't cut out to use Haki."

Van glanced toward him looking suddenly more determined; his eye twitched slightly, "Not cut out for it? I'll show you! I'll be the best damn Haki... using... person... thing, you've ever seen!" He clenched his fist in front of his face then turned to repeat the action again but this time faster and more frantic.

Drew shook his head despairingly, but still smiling at his brother's determination, as he ascended the stairs to the helm he turned to Ayanne, "you look like you could use a break. I'll take over for a while." Ayanne stared at him for a moment then smiled.

"Yeah if I'm honest I could use a lil rest, my arms are killing me." She said as she moved aside for Drew to take over. As Drew grabbed hold of the wheel Ayanne relaxed, leaning against the railing looking out at the infinite blue expanse of the ocean bathed in the array of reds, purples and oranges of the setting sun, "What's Haki?" she asked turning back to Drew who stood bewildered by the sudden interest before replying.

"It's the focus and application of an individual's willpower. It's really hard to master but very useful in a scrap. One of the most famous and skilled Haki users was Shanks; one of the four lords of the sea. As you can imagine it's a huge advantage for a pirate." He turned to look down at Van, who was still going through the previous his face scrunched up in a focused expression, "Van has an enormous amount of willpower but he has only mastered the basics of Haki and cannot control the amount of energy he uses up when attempting to harness it."

At this point Van looked up, noticing his two crewmates staring at him, he flashed a cheeky smile which seemed to take up his entire face, Ayanne's eyes widened, she hadn't noticed before but all of Vans teeth were sharp and pointed, they looked unlike any human teeth _she'd _ever seen, she decided not to bring it up, just in case it was a sensitive issue.

"Well Van seems like he would be a," Ayanne took a moment to think of the best way to put it, "Difficult person to teach, I imagine you must be proud to have been able to even teach him the basics." She looked back towards Drew as she finished the sentence and smiled reassuringly.

"Ha ha yes, he is a very difficult person to teach and Teaching him the basics is a huge accomplishment" Drew said grinning, then it suddenly turned into a thoughtful expression, "however it is not my accomplishment," Ayanne gave him a quizzical look.

"Then, who did?" she asked, honestly confused by Drew's answer.

"Well, as far as I can tell, he learned the Haki he does know from Mik, by watching the dragon he learned a lot."

"Wait, how is that even possible?" Ayanne asked, more confused now than she had been before his reply.

"You will see what I mean if you see him use it. It is a well noted fact that dragons are powerful Haki users, which is why they were so hard to kill. However once humans learned their own form of Haki, it evened out the playing field and almost all the dragons were hunted down and killed." Drew looked solemnly toward Van, more specifically to the dragon resting on his shoulder.

"That's terrible." Ayanne exclaimed, looking shocked. "I knew they were rare but... I had no idea."

"Well, what's done is done there's nothing we can do about the sins of the father except bare them and try to move on." Drew looked up, suddenlysmiling once again, "Well I did teach Van one piece of Haki" Ayanne glanced back toward Drew, slightly surprised by the sudden change of subject, however considering the previous subject she chose to just go with it.

"Oh really? What?" she asked smiling once again.

"Van, show Ayanne what I taught you." Drew said, drawing a gun from its holster inside his jacket and pointing it at Van.

Van looked up with a slightly confused expression on his face, Ayanne was taken aback by the weapon being drawn she didn't know what to do. Suddenly Drew started firing; Van dodged every single bullet with apparent ease. Ayanne drew back her fist and punched Drew in the side of his head sending him flying across the ship.

"Ow! That really hurt. What are you doing? I knew he would dodge them." Drew said rising up off the floor and dusting himself off.

"Yeah, who cares about that? You were hitting the ship, you know how long this took me to make? I worked solidly for a week and you put holes in it! Ya jerk." Ayanne shouted, a vein throbbing in her temple.

Drew smiled "oh right, I didn't think about that. Sorry." He said apologetically.

Ayanne glared at him _you will be if you hurt my ship again_ she thought to herself. "How did he dodge all those bullets anyway?" she asked suddenly realising the amazing feat she had witnessed.

"It's the form of Haki I taught him, it allows you to predict your opponent's movements, I'm just glad he dodged them, if I'm honest he's a bit hit and miss with it." Drew chuckled with nervous relief.

"Then why the hell did you do it you idiot!" Ayanne yelled taking another swing at Drew.

"I thought I was gonna die." Van panted, looking panicked, Mik fainted and fell off his shoulder with a thud as he hit the floor.

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Light from the midday sun broke in through the cabin window, shining right onto Van's face he slowly he opened his eyes, suddenly looking very annoyed "DAMMITALL! As soon as I get to a port I'm going to find some curtains." he fell out of his hammock with a crash, "Ow, Ow, Ow!" Van mumbled to himself holding his head in pain as he stumbled toward the door to the deck. The bright light limited his vision at first as he stepped out onto the deck.

"Oh look who's..." Ayanne stopped midsentence with a combination of anger and embarrassment on her face, "put some clothes on you pervert!"

Van stood in just his baggy boxers yawning, "hmm sorry I didn't expect anyone to be up yet."

"It's one in the afternoon you lazy ass! Now get dressed!" Ayanne's face had turned bright red, whether it was from embarrassment or rage was anyone's guess.

Van turned and slowly walked back into the cabin mumbling unintelligible gibberish to himself as he shut the door behind him. He re-emerged twenty minutes later, this time fully clothed, "So where exactly are we heading Drew?" he asked yawning once again.

"We are heading toward a small island just short of Reverse Mountain called Privateer, Isle to stock up on supplies and that is where we will separate, I'll wait for my ride there." Drew said looking up from his map.

"What do you mean, 'where we will separate'?"Ayanne asked shocked by the news.

"You didn't tell her?" Drew looked at Van quizzically; Van smiled rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Oh right yeah I forgot, Ayanne Drew isn't part of my crew, he was just helping me start out and steal a ship." He said as he turned toward Ayanne then smiled back at Drew.

"Ha ha what brothers are for eh kid?" Drew added grinning.

"He's your brother?" Ayanne's expression was pure confusion as she pointed from Van to drew and back again.

"You didn't tell her that either? She knows you're a pirate right? This could be a really awkward journey for you otherwise." He said to Van, chuckling to himself.

"Of course she does... wait, you do right?" he turned to Ayanne scratching his head.

"Of course I do you idiot!" she shouted punching him in the head. "Just keep me in the loop better next time."

"Owwww you do that too much" Van said nursing the lump on the back of his head.

"Only when I'm annoyed, it's your fault that that's happening a lot lately" she calmed down almost instantly afterwards and looked toward Drew, "you said you were going to wait for your ride, what exactly will that be?"

"My pirate ship of course." Drew said smiling widely, suddenly the family resemblance was more obvious, "I'm the captain of the Akuma Pirates."

Ayanne remembered seeing that name somewhere before but couldn't quite put her finger on where. She stood looking thoughtful when a sudden yell snapped her out of it.

"Land!" Drew shouted pointing toward the island on the horizon, "Head toward the docks Van."

"AYE!" Van replied grinning broadly.

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It had taken another couple hours to reach the island but they had arrived and docked the ship, the docks were guarded by mercenaries hired by the townspeople to guard the ships, Because the island was so close to reverse mountain pirate traffic was high and the last thing the town wanted was a big pirate battle in their docks because some pirate had vandalised another's ship.

The three had headed into town to find somewhere to buy supplies, somewhere to sleep and to generally scope out the town, Van left Mik on the ship, a busy town was not a good place for a small dragon. It was bustling with people a large percentage were pirates you could just tell; the town was really well built, business from the pirates was obviously very good for this place. Ayanne couldn't help noticing that a lot of the pirates they passed in the street were staring at them almost in awe. Van couldn't help notice that he could smell food and rushed toward a restaurant the other two followed.

They sat in the restaurant eating the noodles they had ordered. Van was already on his fifth bowl; Ayanne and Drew were on their first.

"Why does everyone keep staring at us?" Ayanne asked the others.

Van shrugged "I unno mayee ids cud o trues mouty?" Drew glanced at Van.

"Don't talk with your mouth full its rude" he said smugly turning away from Van.

"FUG YOU!" Van exclaimed spraying noodles across the table.

"They were probably stunned by your beauty" Drew said to Ayanne taking her by the hand, Ayanne blushed, she knew she was pretty but no-one had said anything like this to her before as she mainly stayed in her carbon armour back on Kyushi island, the most she ever got was a '_no please don't hurt me take whatever you want_' it was a nice change, Drew continued "Have I told you your eyes are the most beautiful colOOOWWWW!" he turned trying to pull the fork out of his shoulder.

"Don't even try and start that Drew you're leaving tomorrow." Van said picking up a new fork and beginning to eat his sixth bowl of noodles.

"I wasn't I just... Fine I see your point, Argh" he wrenched the bloodied fork out of his shoulder and put it in his empty bowl which was amongst Vans five previous ceramic victims.

They paid the bill with some of the money left over from rebuilding the ship and headed toward the front door, they stopped just before the door and looked at the wall where the numerous bounty posters* were pinned up, more as a 'here's your competition' than a 'be careful of these guys'; Twin Hooks Carr, Current Bounty: 40,000,000, Siren Assassin Hikari Kao, Current Bounty: 49,000,000, Crescent Dagger Chris Hopkins, Current Bounty: 68,000,000, Dark Magician Tiggeh Hitomu, Current Bounty: 70,000,000, the list continued there were hundreds of wanted posters but of them all one, immediately caught Ayanne's attention; she recognised the picture straight away. Demon Lord Andrew Niko, Current Bounty: 550,000,000, she looked across at Drew her jaw nearly hit the floor, how could someone so calm and polite have such an enormous bounty. Van pointed at her poster excited to see she had one, the Titan Ayanne, current bounty: 23,000,000, _How could he be so focused on my bounty when his brothers is so huge, does he already know? _She thought to herself now slightly intimidated at being in Drew's presence.

"That's a terrible picture of me" Drew said putting his hand over his picture, snapping Ayanne out of her transfixion on that point, "They never get my good side." He said smiling at Ayanne. This calmed her down, bounty or not he was the same person she had gotten to know over the past couple days.

"We should head out." Drew said as he headed towards the door, "I'll get the supplies you need, think of it as a parting gift. You two should check out the town any pirates hanging round here will be your main competition in the Grand Line." He winked at the two pirates and walked out the front door.

"Well, shall we?" Van said gesturing toward the door.

Ayanne smiled back, "We shall." They walked out of the restaurant into the bustling street, crowds of civilians and pirates swarmed around them as they went about their business, law enforcers in the form of mercenaries were noticeable, intermittently dotted throughout the people.

Ayanne decided this would be a good time to talk to her new captain and get some information about him. She just couldn't figure out a way to get the questions out.

"So what did you do to get that bounty of yours?" Van asked as they walked along the street browsing the shop windows or more specifically the reflections of the pirates that were visible in the window. Ayanne felt that this was more than a random question, maybe he had guessed she was figuring out some way to create an opportunity to start information gathering.

"Oh it was from my previous pirate crew, they were pretty ruthless and if I interjected they would have thought something was wrong with me, and having a reputation as being invincible probably made the world government sweat a bit. Honestly it was probably put out as a precautionary measure." She replied, all the while considering what she was going to ask him.

"Oh right, that makes sense, anything you want to ask me?" Van replied, giving Ayanne the opening she had been looking for.

"Why did you become a pirate?" she asked, she felt she would start out with something like this then work her way up to more personal questions.

"Well the place me and Drew grew up in was horrible, our village was victim to many raids so we lived in constant fear, we made a pact that when we were old enough we would leave for a life out at sea, and there was no way we would ever join the world government so we became pirates. Drew is older than me so he left first; it's not fair really he has had a big head start, it will take me ages to catch up with that bounty." Van looked genuinely annoyed at this fact then returned to his usual smile.

"Ok, my turn, hmmmm" Van looked to be in deep thought for a moment, it also appeared to be really hard work for him to be in that state, "Ah I know, what is your first name? I realised before that I never asked you." He seemed almost embarrassed that he had left it this long to find out.

"Oh" she said, she hadn't expected this, "Alexis" she replied blushing slightly however she didn't really know why. "But I prefer Ayanne, if it's all the same to you." She had never liked her first name, only her mother called her that, and the less said about her the better.

"That's not a problem" Van said, he had gotten used to calling her Ayanne anyway to change now would have been difficult for him to remember.

"My turn?" she asked, Van nodded, "About your teeth, they are unlike any person's I have ever seen. Why are they like that?" part of her was afraid to ask just in case Van got angry at her observation.

Van seemed to trail off into thought for a moment before snapping back into reality, "Ah, well when I was younger about 11 or 12 I ran into something and smashed most of my teeth, our village had a skilled doctor, he replaced my teeth with the closest thing he could find to teeth which was white flint something only found in our villages surroundings, I asked for them to be made pointy," Van said flashing his teeth, " I think it makes em look cool, plus, it makes eating much faster" his show of teeth turned into a big grin.

Van was about to ask his question when Drew returned, the sun was setting now and they were all tired from a day of walking, "C'mon, I will rent a few rooms for us at the inn down the road, we can stay there tonight." Drew said pointing down the road, almost dropping the bags of supplies he had in that hand. After loading the supplies into the ships storage room the three headed to the inn.

"Did you remember my curtains?" Van asked stopping, as the other two carried on up the road, Drew waved him off, which annoyed Van immensely as he tried to catch up .

As they approached the check in desk of the inn there was a tall girl with long red hair in a pony tail which came most of the way down her back, she had hazel coloured eyes and a very attractive face, her pink sleeveless top had 'This Is Not My Face!' written across her frankly ample chest with a picture of an unimpressed panda underneath, she was wearing blue shorts which came to just above her knee and side-buckled tan sandals, she didn't look like a pirate apart from the impressive looking sword on her back, which had a red sheath and hilt. She spoke _really_ fast.

"IwouldlikearoomifthatsatallposibleanythingsfineIjustneedsomewheretostayforthenightIhavemoney..." the girl carried on talking so quickly her words appeared to blend together, the three pirates as well as the inn keeper stared in amazement, understanding, literally none of what she said.

"P-P-Pardon?" the inn keeper said," could you talk a bit slower though this time."

"Oh, sorry was I speaking a little bit fast? That happens sometimes, I'm just a little bit hyper, and I get carried away." She said with a small smile, _A little _they thought unanimously. "Can I have a single room please, also is there somewhere you can store this navigation equipment, I bought these today, I want to keep them safe." She said, as she did Drew's eyes lit up he whispered something to Van, Van looked at him for a second then his eyes lit up too, he turned back to the girl about to speak, but she had gone, the inn keeper stood looking confused with money in his hand where the keys had been a second ago.

"What the?" both Van and the inn keeper said in unison.

"Wow she moved fast," Drew said as he approached the desk, "Can I have three rooms please." He put his money on the counter, the man looked up at him and his eyes widened.

"Erm d-don't worry about it, it's on the house," he said putting the keys on the table.

"Really? Why?" Drew asked confused by the sudden generosity.

The small gaunt man looked round shiftily, "No reason, just first time customer treat." Drew looked at him suspiciously.

"Awesome, that's so generous of you." Van said grinning as he barged past Drew and grabbed the keys.

As the three pirates walked up the stairs the man glanced around then picked up a den-den mushi from under the desk. Drew paused for a moment watching the man, then carried on up the stairs.

(--)

At 11 am Van was stood in the lobby of the inn, barely awake, with his two comrades, Ayanne was looking around the room at the unique architecture of the building while Drew made a call on his baby den-den mushi. Drew had woken them up really early, but he didn't tell them why. The girl from the night before was in the lobby too, she also looked barely awake she was holding some flowers with a silly grin on her face so he assumed Drew had got to her, he shook his head despairingly. Suddenly Van's eyes widened in shock as he heard a shout from outside.

"RAID!" a pirate shouted as he ran through the streets.

Drew finished his conversation abruptly and hung up his den-den mushi, "That's our cue guys, we have to leave _now, _you too Haze_._" The girl looked across at him and picked up her things, all four of them rushed out the front door, there were pirates running everywhere, they turned left and started toward the dock, "I'll accompany you guys to the docks, my ride will be here soon."

"Stop right there!" the voice came from the opposite direction. They obeyed, though none but Drew new why, standing in the road behind them was a large crowd of marines. At the front of this large crowd stood a boy who couldn't have been any older than 14, he had piercing blue eyes, you could see a few strands of white hair coming from under his marine cap which was backwards on his head, he had the standard issue marine trousers and boots but wore no top.

"_Run_" Drew whispered to the other three before turning round to face the marines, his entire demeanour changed as he turned. "Vice-Admiral Shinzo, it's good to see you again" he said smiling threateningly and the boy. Van turned round to argue with his brother's request, the young Vice-Admiral disappeared before his very eyes. Blood sprayed Van in the face, as Shinzo appeared driving his hand through Drew's chest and out of his back.

Drew turned round his eyes glowing red, "I said _RUN!_" he said again, his voice was different, darker and less human; Van and the two girls turned and ran.

Shinzo raised his free hand toward the fleeing pirates, Drew's hand quickly clutched his wrist tightly, "Don't even think about it." Drew growled in his dark voice.

"_Get them!_" he ordered to his men as he withdrew his bloodied hand from Drew's chest, the marines immediately charged after Van and the others, Drew collapsed to the floor in pain, gasping for air. The Vice-Admiral stepped over Drew and started walking towards the docks.

"Where do you think you're going?" Drew snarled, now standing up again, his chest wound was gone and his eyes were still glowing red, brighter than before.

"You know that fruit of yours is becoming a real pain old man." Vice-Admiral Shinzo said cheekily as he turned with a confident grin.

"I could say the same about yours kid." Drew replied their eyes locked onto each other for a moment; suddenly they lunged at each other faster than the eye could follow.

Van glanced behind as him Ayanne and Haze (the girl from the inn) ran towards the dock _not far to go just over the next hill _he thought to himself, he saw one of the marines putting a baby den-den mushi into his jacket, he had a bad feeling about this. They reached the dock only to find it was filled with marines, all the other pirates in town had obviously already gone or been arrested, as the ship with the dragon head was the only one left in the dock, only one floating at least.

The three pirates charged the marine hoard, Van attacked first, he sharply clenched his jaw shut as he threw back his head breathing in as he did so, his teeth sparked as they touched each other Van let out a booming roar as an enormous flame erupted from his mouth towards the crowd blowing marines across the bay, Ayanne watched in awe, she thought back to what Drew had said to her, "_he learned the Haki he does know from Mik, by watching the dragon he learned a lot... You will see what I mean if you see him use it_", in her distraction she didn't notice the marines slowly enclosing her_. _Van continued his attacks, manipulating the fire around him, every punch and kick sent a burst of flames into a marine taking them out instantly.

Ayanne had become surrounded by enemies she had no way out, "Ha ha, hey little girl, maybe if you surrender now we won't be _too_ rough on you." The marines around her laughed with evil grins on their faces, this quickly turned to horror as she armoured up, grabbing the offending marine by the throat and using him to beat the surrounding marines to a bloody mess. More marines crowded round breaking their swords on her carbon shell before being knocked out with ease.

"Van help the girl, she's got marines on her" Ayanne shouted knocking away enemies right left and centre.

Haze was indeed surrounded but she did not appear to be in trouble, she began to emit a pink glow, then spun sending what looked like sakura petals in a circular burst outward, you heard the metallic clickof her sword being sheathed (even though she had moved to fast to have seen it being drawn) then instantly a slash emerged across each of the twelve marines' chests as they collapsed to the floor."

"Mik, get your scaly ass down here!" Van shouted looking up at the ship. The dragon leapt off the railing turning into a smaller version of the sword Van used in his fight with Ayanne, Van caught the weapon in one hand, "Get on the ship quickly, these guys just keep coming" Van said as he spun round, they happily obliged taking out tens of marines as they did, "Dragon Fang!" Van yelled as a fiery wave flew from his blade, knocking back twenty marines. As he jumped onto the ship he unleashed the attack two more times setting alight the marine ships docked near theirs.

"Go, go, go set sail now." They set off with their new passenger and within 30 minutes the dock was out of sight and no marines had followed.

"What about Drew?" Ayanne said worriedly as she looked back to the fading island in the distance.

"He'll be fine, my brother doesn't go down easy, plus I think we passed his crew as we left, he will be out of there in no time." Van said grinning excitedly, "That was intense! Ha ha ha" Van sat down on the deck still laughing then stopped, "Oh right Haze. That was impressive back there, Drew was right, you should definitely join our crew, we need a navigator because I have an awful sense of direction, and a swordsman..Err...Woman and you're both." he paused to consider his sentence, "I mean both a swordsman and a navigator, not a man and a woman" he clarified, laughing nervously hoping he hadn't just recruited another 'hitter'. The girl looked at him and smiled.

"Ohmygodreally? ThatwouldbegreatIneedtogototheGrandLineanywaybecause..." she continued in her fast paced speech

"Huh?" Van mumbled. "I have no idea what you just said." He continued grinning "But it I hope it meant yes." Reverse Mountain was visible in the distance, rising into the clouds and _that _was their destination.

* * *

**A/N:**So yeah that is chapter 3 =) hope everyone liked it. Haze is the brilliant creation of LaZy-RaIn-DaNcEr (and I sincerely hope she lives up to your vision), and we will find out more about her next chapter X )

*The pirates featured in the bounty posters are OC's that i felt weren't right to join the crew at this time however I knew I would want them in the story at some point, as rivals, enemies or crewmates will be decided when they make their full appearances and I will credit their creators when they make their debut =) See the reviews if you can't wait that long. Crescent Dagger Chris hopkins is a nod to another story, much better than my own. If you have read it you will know which I mean, if not then i recomend you go read Pirates! by SeeNoEvil121 right now, go now! Get reading! X ) Please read and review if you have the time =) OC's are still more than welcome, at this point a cook or doctor would be best =)

ShX


	5. Chapter 4 Haze

**A/N:** Sorry it has taken so long to update, I went on holiday. =) This chapter is even longer than the last so brace yourselves. Good luck and enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 4.**

**Haze.**

* * *

The three Pirates sat at the large, round table in the kitchen staring at each other in silent contemplation of their narrow escape, carefully drinking their hot coco and winding down a little.

"That was _soooo_ cool!" Van said suddenly, shuddering with excitement and jumping out of his seat almost throwing his cup into the air. "Ha ha those marines didn't stand a chance, truly awesome work guys, those idiots will regret messing with you Ayanne. I thought that guy's head was gonna come off. And Haze, that, that... I don't even know what that was, but it definitely dropped those morons who tried to surround you." Van chuckled to himself as he sat back in his chair.

"Less said about back there the better in my opinion." Ayanne said crossing her arms and glaring disapprovingly at Vans excitement. "So Haze, as you are our crews newest member, where are you from?" Haze suddenly looked solemnly down at the table.

"I don't know," She said, her eyes fell under shadow as a tear ran down her cheek.

"Look what you did Ayanne, you need to work on your social skills." Van said using this as an opportunity to return Ayanne's disapproving glare before turning back to Haze.

"No, it isn't her fault." Haze said wiping the tear from her face, "I'll tell you everything I remember."

(--)

The waves slowly washed against the beach, licking at the red haired 15 year olds feet. She slowly opened her eyes which gradually came into focus to see the stars in the night sky, they were so pretty but, where was she? She attempted to think back which resulted in a surge of pain striking through her skull like lightening. She could see the face of a middle aged marine wearing a suit looking angry and mouthing something she couldn't make out, but the image faded beyond the grasp of her memory leaving only the image of his cold, piercing blue eyes and an intense pain in her head. She lay and stared at the stars for at least an hour._Right_ she thought _I really should try and find out where I am_**. **She felt a shot of panic run through every fibre of her being, _Where's Aka-hana? Also, who the hell is Aka-hana_**? **She was quite baffled by what exactly she was so worried about, her eyes darted round the beach and sure enough, in the distance, buried in the sand, was a red sheath katana with a red handle, she didn't understand why, but she knew this was what she was looking for and that it was very important to her. With that issue over with, she decided to climb a nearby tree; she was most relieved to find she was quite proficient at tree climbing, this could have ended badly otherwise. She saw the lights of a village in the distance and climbed down from her lookout point.

After wandering around the forest for the best part of a week she had to acknowledge she was lost, it didn't help that she was quite badly injured and was repeatedly chased by random abnormally large animals, being pursued by a six foot bunny was not the progress she was hoping for. The girl could hear the bustling of the villagers daily routines nearby. _I must be close. _she thought but she still could not find her way there.

A little old man appeared from nowhere, popping out of the bushes suddenly. He was short and bald but had wise yet kind eyes, with a long white beard which touched the floor, he was wearing the odd combination of a suit and sandals, "hello young lady," he said smiling kindly. "I haven't seen you around before. What's your name?" The girl was taken aback by his sudden appearance so she stood staring at him in a mixture of shock and surprise for several seconds.

She snapped out of it and bowed her head politely, "My name is Haze." she said almost on autopilot then she stopped. _So that's my name_**. **She thought to herself. Haze smiled broadly, "Thank you Ossan." she said happy to finally know who she was.

"You're an odd one" he said smiling still, he was about to go back to his business when she spoke again.

"Where am I?" Haze asked politely.

"This is Uchuu Island, we are just outside Hoshi Village. How could you not know that?" the man looked truly puzzled. It was only then that he noticed Haze's numerous injuries, "what on earth happened to you?" he asked looking shocked. "Quickly, come with me. We have to get you to a doctor." he grasped her by the arm and dragged her through the bushes until they reached an opening into a small, quite old looking village. The old man hurriedly dragged her into a large white building in the centre. "Doctor quickly, I need you to help this, girl she is badly injured." The doctor turned and was hit by the same shocked expression as the old man had when he had seen Haze's wounds.

"Please miss, lie down here. I am just going to give you some anaesthetic. Count back from 10." he stuck the mask of Haze's mouth.

"Ten, Nine, Eight… Seven….. Six………Five……………FFFF…………" Haze slipped into unconsciousness.

Many weeks passed by, Haze didn't wake up. The old man remained by her bed the whole time. Her eyes flickered momentarily before opening, "Where, where am I?" she asked sitting up slowly, grabbing her ribs as a pain pulsed through her stomach.

"This is Hoshi village, I brought you here to treat your injuries, I was worried you weren't going to wake up." he smiled benevolently, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're a tough one I'll give you that. I hope you don't mind but I've organised for you to stay with me until you recover fully." Haze looked up and smiled at him. _It'll be nice to have place to stay for a while._She thought to herself as she nodded her acceptance.

Haze lived peacefully in the village over her four month recovery period, she had gotten to know all the villagers and they gladly accepted her as one of their own, they had become a surrogate family for her. Despite not remembering anything about her past she was happy, the old man had taught her how to navigate in combination with star gazing which enabled her an even higher mastery of the art. "Haze my dear, I've never seen anything like it, you have equalled me in less than three months, you will truly be an incredible navigator when you leave this island." he said smiling with obvious pride.

"Leave?" She questioned, looking worried.

"Yes Haze, over the past four months we have grown close and I have come to think of you as the daughter I never had, and as much as it saddens a man to see a daughter leave, he must do what is best for her." he looked away trying to keep his smile, "I fear if you stay here your memory will never return, that is why you have to go. If there is a way to recover what you lost, it is out there in the grand line, it is a mysterious and magical place." he smiled, less convincingly than before as he spoke. Haze didn't want to leave but she knew that what he said was correct, she had to go.

"I will set off tomorrow then Hyabuma-Sama." she said bowing.

"Please, you are my equal, the formalities are not necessary. Tonight we celebrate." that night the entire village threw Haze a leaving party, they brought gifts and sang songs. This was a bittersweet experience for Haze as she knew the next day would be all the more difficult but decided to put that to the back of her mind and enjoy the moment.

The next morning couldn't come late enough as far as Haze was concerned but it came much quicker than she expected, _Time to go. _She thought to herself staring solemnly at her bedroom ceiling, "*sigh* this is going to be hard." she said, out loud as she got out of bed and put on her original and extensively repaired outfit. She picked up the basic supplies she had packed in a rucksack the night before and headed out the front door after writing a short thank you/goodbye note to old man Hyabuma.

Haze had become accustom to the villages surroundings and found it easy to get back to the beach, she then headed along the Shoreline until reaching the makeshift dock that the village used for sailing. As she approached the small sailing boat rigged up in the dock (the one the old man had told her to take) she felt a chill run down her spine, she stopped for a second a glanced round but saw nothing, even though there was nothing there it still made her feel uneasy so she quickly prepared the boat for cast off. Just as she was about to set off men emerged from the forest running towards her, they looked just like the pictures of marines Hyabuma had shown her except their uniforms weren't white, they were dark blue, almost black and justice did not appear to be their reason for being here. Haze dropped the sails immediately, luckily due to what she learned from Hyabuma she was able to catch a strong wind and evacuated the shore in no time at all , the shadowy figures on the shore instantly recognised they stood no chance of catching up and stopped, Haze could just about make out one of them taking out a baby den-den mushi but he quickly vanished over the horizon as Haze sailed away.

(--)

It had been three weeks since Haze left Hoshi Village, she was now sat in a hotel room she paid for using some of the money she got from the villagers at her leaving party. Her map was spread across the table as she planned her route, she had already decided on her destination, she was heading to Privateer Isle, _It's sure to have pirates or merchants that are planning to enter the grand line. _she thought to herself plotting points on the map to collect supplies on the way. Haze was startled by a knock at the door, she hurriedly packed away her maps and put them in her bag. She picked up Aka-hana, walked toward the door and looked through the peep hole. The man on the other side was in a marine uniform but darker, and blue instead of white, he had taken a step back, Haze recognised his clothes instantly, she attempted to move away from the door but it was too late.

Haze hurtled across the room as the door flew off its hinges from being kicked by a size twleve boot and collided with Haze knocking her onto her back, the sword slid out of reach. Haze clambered to her feet, dazed but ok she turned to see a soldiers fist flying in her direction, she expertly rolled out of the way as if by instinct toward her katana, drawing it and deflecting the three soldiers that lunged at her with their blades drawn before dealing each a precise and fatal cut. Haze couldn't understand it, she didn't remember anything about what she was doing, she just felt herself moving with Aka-hana like it was second nature to her. The man who had kicked down the door stepped into the room and glanced down at the three dead soldiers.

"Shame." He said, his remark was sincere yet cold and uncaring, this combination had an unnervingly imposing effect on Haze, she felt she had experienced it before and was terrified by it.

The soldier was obviously higher ranked than the previous three soldiers, "Who are you? What do you want with me?" Haze asked, trying to stop the fear from infecting her voice.

"I am marine Captain Halcyon." the soldier replied in a cold and frank voice. "And I am just following orders." As he finished he pulled five poles made of some sort of stone connected by chains made of a similar substance, as he let go of all but one pole they fell instantly being tightened together by the chain as they snapped into place to form a single solid staff.

Something inside Haze screamed at her, whatever he was here for she knew she didn't want to be stuck in this small room with him. Haze darted toward him snaking slightly as she moved in his direction, she struck upward with her blade, an attack that was easily blocked, but this distraction was all she needed. Haze grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder as she burst through the glass window of her hotel room, the glass from the shattering window cut her arms in several places and she landed with a less than elegant thud as she bounced off a small ledge one story down before falling the remaining two stories and landing in a rolling motion which brought her back to her feet, injured but still moving. The Captains small confident smile turned to an equally small frown as Haze ran toward the window, he watched as she plunged through it, then his original smile returned as he heard the consecutive thuds, he slowly walked toward the window, a shocked look flashed across his face which quickly turned to annoyance as he watched Haze running down the street. Captain Halcyon turned and breaking his staff down into its original five, chained together pieces and placing it inside his long dark navy blue captains jacket.

Haze set sail even faster than she had on Uchuu, at least fifty of the dark shadowy figures stormed the dock as Captain Halcyon nonchalantly walked behind them, they were much to late to catch her, all they could do was watch her disappear into the sunset. Halcyon did not look angry, in fact it was the exact opposite, a smirk spread across his face, we move out in the morning, we know where she is going. It is time we began our mission.

(--)

Haze didn't sleep at all in the week it took her to get to the next island on her schedule. She had docked her small sailboat two hours ago and was now shopping for supplies, she hadn't gotten the chance on the previous island, she really hoped they wouldn't show up again now because she really needed to rest. After buying her supplies she booked herself into the local inn.

"_**I will make your life hell." **_Haze woke with a start, _its ok just a nightmare _she thought to herself, her head was throbbing in pain, she couldn't even remember what the dream was about but she was sweating and her heart was racing more than she had ever felt before, whatever it was petrified her.

_I need to get some air. _She decide, heading out the door of her room and down the stairs to the bottom floor. As always she had taken Aka-hana with her, but she decided to leave the supplies she had purchased in her room, they would only make the walk cumbersome. Haze walked for a few hours before feeling that she was ready to give sleeping another go. As she approached the small inn she noticed several large men, in dark blue uniforms, her eyes widened in both shock and realisation. The two men spotted her as she fled, they immediately pursued her toward the docks, although they were on strict orders, the girls sudden appearance had caused them to forget their instructions and they chased after her alone. The two soldiers caught up to Haze quickly, she was exhausted both physically and mentally from a combination of sleep deprivation and distress caused by her nightmare. Haze knew she had to turn and fight, she stopped and turned sluggishly blocking the soldiers attacks, but this didn't hold up long, one of the men caught a descent blow breaking her guard and knocking her backwards, the soldiers were strong but she knew that if she wasn't so weakened that they would be no problem. This fact didn't comfort her at all as the larger of the two men closed in on her while she attempted to scramble to her feet, _This is it. _Haze knew that it was taking her too long to get up she was a sitting duck, she braced herself for the impact of the mans blade but it never came. Haze slowly opened her eyes and turned to see the two men lying near each other on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood and a single needle-like dagger in the back of each ones' neck. A rustle in her peripheral caught her attention, as something moved through the undergrowth alongside the path. Before she could investigate she heard the rhythmic plod of military boots, quickly marching in her direction. _I have to get out of here, I couldn't even defend myself against two of them._Haze quickly got in her boat with Aka-hana clutched tightly in her left hand and the map she usually kept tucked into her belt in the right. She knew the only way to get her supplies was to go through the shadowy marines and that was not an option at this point in time.

The next island Haze arrived at was completely uninhabited. There is no way they would follow her here. She decided this would be a good time to train her skills. Haze spent five days training non-stop, honing her skills, she felt herself coming closer and closer to the skill that seemed right to her, as though that was how good she was supposed to be. It was only on the fifth night, when Haze decided to leave, that she realised the extent of her exhaustion. Unfortunately Haze's supplies were at the inn on the last island she had visited, and despite her surroundings being a dense jungle there were no fruit bearing tree, _score! _She thought as she spotted a single tree with a large fruit on it she jumped and sliced the fruit off the tree with a single fluid motion. Haze didn't bother cooking the strange pink pineapple like object she was far too hungry for that, she just dug straight in eating all but the stalk at the top, it was far too bitter for her liking but apart from that it was fine. Haze felt a sudden rush of energy, the food had obviously done the trick, deciding to put this energy to use she grabbed her blade and her map and set sail for the next island. About half way through the journey Haze started to feel odd, small glowing hallucinations appeared in front off her just before the dizziness became too much and she blacked out.

Haze woke up on the island she had intended to sail to, a few feet from her small sail boat, she didn't feel at all well as she slowly opened her eyes, the sand was soft beneath her head and the first thing that came into focus was how pretty the sky was, she flicked from constellation to constellation remember each pattern of twinkling stars perfectly. While still lying down she turned her head to scope out her surroundings, the first thing she notice was that her body was outlined perfectly with scorch marks on the floor but this was quickly outdone by the dead soldier lying a few feet away from her she stood up suddenly, turning round in a full circle to count the eight dead shadow-men, or Kagi-men as Haze had decided to call them due to there dark appearance and habit of appearing from nowhere. A little ahead of the eight was one that appeared to have run away only to be killed in the same fashion as the others, a single throwing dagger to the back of the neck, _Did I do this, _she thought to herself. _No, I recognise these wounds from before, it was done by whoever helped me then. But why? _Haze stood trying to think who would help her but quickly realised that it was pointless as the majority of the people from her life she didn't even remember. Haze took her time to scout out the small harbour town before trusting it enough to enter, she didn't want to fall into another trap. The inn Haze decided upon was small and nothing special but more than enough for her, plus she didn't want to stay somewhere as obvious as her previous accommodations, they hadn't ended up very well, this was nice, small and more importantly out the way of the rest of the town, she barely even noticed it when she was walking round. She had taken the time to stop and buy a new selection of supplies, namely food and some very basic navigation equipment, _Beggars can't be picky… or something like that._She had thought to herself, Haze felt random, odd, bursts of energy as she walked around the town, and something strange happened when she tried to rent a room. _"HeycanIhavearoomplease." _she shook her head, chuckling to herself as she thought about the look on the innkeepers face.

Haze slept better than she had in a long time, she let out a small yawn and stretched as she got out of bed, the morning light poured in through her window, no interruptions during the night was something she could get used to. After putting on her pink sleeveless panda shirt and her blue shorts, she slipped on her sandals and clipped them up before grabbing her small bag of food and equipment then leaving, she gave a small wave to the innkeeper as she went out the front door, he just looked at her sceptically, he obviously hadn't gotten over her speedy outbursts the night before.

It was about an hours walk to the beach where Haze's boat was moored, however Haze decided to take her time. It had been a while since she had been able to leave an island without being chased or unconscious so she decided to make the most of it. The waves lapped at the beach by Haze's boat, the sand was smooth and almost white in its purity, it was in fact too pure, _I knew it was too much to ask for it to be easy for once. _she thought acknowledging that this part of the beach was missing nine dead Kagi-men.

"You did quite a number on our men miss" the voice came from behind Haze, it wasn't the captain from before this was someone else. Haze turned to face the tall gaunt almost sickly looking man, he had ebony black greased back hair, dark green eyes and wore a suit as black as his hair and didn't really contrast against his long, dark blue, 'navy' jacket at all, a white sheathed katana was strapped to his side with a white handle protruding up along the line of his coat. "I used to be a marine you know." he said turning his back on Haze, she was aware that Kagi-men were closing in behind her, she would deal with them when they got close, Aka-hana was strapped to her belt so it would be easily accessible when the moment arose. "I was a major before I left." he said grinning to himself smugly, _A major_**, **she thought feeling slightly unnerved, _This could be difficult_**. **The Kagi-men were right behind her now, she moved her hand toward the katana.

"Fukeiza Kyuuta" the major growled, as the marines lunged toward Haze, an intense pain the likes of which she hadn't felt since Uchuu ripped through Haze's head. She staggered forward unable to protect herself from the Kagi-men that grabbed her arms, putting pressure on her shoulders to force her to her knees and keep her there. The ex-marine turned back to Haze punching her across the face, blood hit the boot of the Kagi-man to Haze's right, much to his obvious disgust.

"Ew Major watch where you get that stuff, I only just got my uniform clean from the last time" The soldier said looking annoyed at the stain on his shiny boots.

The Major raised his hands apologetically "Sorry soldier" he said, before smiling down at Haze, "Ah the last time." he said in poorly acted reminiscence. "That was a real massacre, that was the one thing I missed about being a marine, the slaughter." he walked away a couple of steps taking what looked like a newspaper from his jacket pocket, I'm guessing you haven't read one of these in a while, he turned smiling grimly, as he turned the paper so Haze could see it, her eyes widened in horror.

'Hoshi Village destroyed: No survivors!' the headline made Haze feel sick, she dropped her head, _You will not cry, not in front of them_**. **she thought, forcibly holding back the tears. The Kagi-major walked away again chuckling to himself malevolently, Haze started to glow blue, she felt a rush of energy pulse through her body and out through her hands, the two soldiers holding her down were hurled across the beach as a blue ball of energy emerged from each hand hitting them each in the chest. Haze had no idea what just happened but she didn't care right now, she rose to her feet, not taking her eyes of the major who had now turned and drawn his sword, her eyes fell into shadow as she drew Aka-hana and began to glow pink, "I will make you pay for what you've done." she growled under her breath as she closed in on the far less confident looking Kagi-man, the soldiers around him drew their weapons also, in order to block the path to their superior officer. Haze disappeared, the majors eyes widened as she appeared in front of him, behind her he saw a swirl of what appeared to be sakura petals following in her path ripping apart any soldiers in the way, the tip of Aka-hana stopped just in front of his chest, the petals however, did not. Haze's glow changed from pink to red as did the petals which spiralled into a point at the end of her blade effortlessly driving through the mans chest. The tall dark figure stood for several seconds with a hole in his chest, Haze's glow faded and the petals dispersed into nothingness. She dropped to her knees in exhaustion and despair as the major fell backwards with a thud, mouthing what seemed to be "Impossible."

Haze clambered toward her bag, and hurriedly took out all her food, which she quickly consumed. She didn't really know what she had done to the Kagi-men but whatever it was it had drained all her energy. Haze quickly repacked her things and got in her small and now tattered boat, this was all she had left of her home, at least the closest thing she knew to home, a tear slowly ran down her face as she thought of the old man and the villagers.

Captain Halcyons ocean blue eyes were locked onto Haze as he stood atop the cliff that overlooked the beach and contemplated what he had just seen, he looked to be in deep thought over the subject, he was in standard Navy issue clothing and his captains jacket flowed in the coastal wind.

"Your orders sir?" the soldier next to him, who was also in standard marine uniform, asked interrupting his Captains concentration.

A small smile appeared across Halcyon's face, "Let's just see how this plays out, I think it will get interesting very soon."

"If I can be so bold sir, what exactly are we supposed to be doing?" the soldier was expecting, harsh words to follow such a blatant questioning of orders.

Halcyons smile disappeared once more as he returned to his contemplative expression, "I don't know soldier, but I don't think it's as noble a mission as we were led to believe." he dismissed the soldier and returned to staring at Haze as she set off over the horizon in her bantam sail-boat. "And soldier," Halcyon said, not even looking at the soldier who paused as he walked away, "burn all the _other_uniforms." the soldier nodded before walking away.

It was several weeks before Haze reached the next island, but she didn't mind, the long trip gave her plenty of time to clear her head. That being said it felt good to be on dry land, the trip had made her feel kind of dizzy the entire time, but the moment she docked the boat and got ashore she felt fine. It was a beautiful day, and this was the final island before Privateer Isle so Haze decided to make the most of it. First thing she did was restock on food as it had quickly disappeared during the ride, it was strange but she was eating much more than usual. Then it hit her, the strange powers on the last island, the enormous appetite and the fact that she felt so strange when she was sailing, _Devil fruit _she thought to herself, the memory flooded back to her, it had been hazy before but now it was perfectly clear she remembered eating the strange looking fruit then passing out, she quickly made her way to the towns library. "D D D… dark ages, deck maintenance, man there is loads of books here, demons, ah here it is" Haze grabbed the book labelled 'Devil Fruit Encyclopaedia' she slammed the book on the table with a loud bang, which echoed throughout the building prompting a very stern look from the librarian. Haze flicked through the book until she found the fruit she recognised. 'Konki-Konki no mi: Energy fruit, enables the user to convert there own energy into a physical enhancement or attack. Side note: This fruits ability is effected heavily by emotion causing sudden energy bursts and fluctuating power levels. Requires a lot of energy to be used consistently.' "Energy huh." Haze said to herself, concentrating to force a blue spark of energy to flicker across her fingers. "Cool" she said, mesmerized by the dancing light.

Later that day Haze found a secluded part of the island to practice in, she kept a large quantity of food with her so she could really see what she could do. She glowed blue, and stretched out an arm, nothing happened, Haze was glad she decided to find somewhere private, she felt like an idiot. An hour passed of Haze striking hundreds random poses trying to form some sort of attack, "*Sigh* this is pointless, what do you want from me, Konki-Bakuha?" she said sarcastically gesturing overdramatically, a flash of blue light appeared from her hand destroying a tree opposite Haze and knocking her onto her ass as she wasn't at all ready for it. Haze trained for hours on end, she didn't bother going to sleep, she just honed her control over her new powers. Three had passed by Haze stood confidently eyeing up the trees which were, for the time being, her enemies, "Momoiro:" she began drawing her sword, "Sakura!" she shouted spinning round, swiping her blade horizontally sending out a burst flakes of pink energy which looked like sakura petals around her knocking branches off the trees around her. "Aoiro:" the glow changed to blue, "Konki-Bakuha!" she gestured toward each tree in turn leaving nothing but smouldering stumps as the blue energy ball struck them with a bang. "Gotcha" she said with a laugh, trying to hold back her excitement, "Now lets see… Kiiro: Bakushin!" Haze glowed yellow and moved forward with impossible speed, a yellow blur hurtled past the trees, before stopping next to the food, Haze sheathed her blade while eating an apple she had picked up, as the blade clicked into place every tree she had passed shattered as innumerable cuts appeared across each one. "One more before I go I think." Haze said to herself, smiling, she cut a triangle out of a tree next to her causing it to slowly topple in her direction "Midoriiro: Shi-rudo" Haze glowed green, but differently than in the other attacks, it seemed more solid, the tree hit her but bounced harmlessly off the green energy and slammed into the floor. The glow dispersed and Haze fell to her knees, "Wow, that ones tricky." she gasped, grabbing a handful of food to regenerate her energy. A couple of hours later she decided to make her way to her final destination, Privateer. Due top her expert navigation, it had only taken Haze a week to get to Privateer Isle, she took one final glance at her small boat, "Goodbye buddy, thanks for getting me this far." she said smiling as she pushed the boat away from the dock and out to sea. Then she turned to look at the bustling town, "Somewhere in there is my ticket to the Grand Line." she said to herself grinning and rubbing her hands together.

(--)

"And that's it." Haze said looking up, "You know the rest." Ayanne was on the point of tears.

"That's so sad." Ayanne mumbled, trying not to cry. It became easier when she saw that Van had gone, she had been so entranced in the story that she didn't even see him leave, she looked out the open door to see Van jumping around the deck of the ship trying to catch a butterfly with his hands.

"Dam you butterfly, you won't beat me, I'm going to be pirate king." he said leaping around.

"Insensitive ASS!" Ayanne shouted her face had turned crimson with anger as she hurled a porcelain cup at Van knocking him to the floor as it shattered against his head.

"OOOOOWWWWW! What the hell!?" Van yelled pointing at Ayanne and rubbing the large lump on his forehead, "that coulda killed me jerk!"

"Don't call me a jerk you ASS!" she yelled back.

Haze giggled to herself as a full argument broke out between the other two, _This will be fun. _she thought to herself as she sat back in her chair, drinking what was left of her coco.

"Look its got away now, I'll be the laughing stock of butterflies everywhere."

"I don't care, you're insane!"

There argument drifted into the night sky. A week later the crew of three, were sat in the kitchen area, Ayanne had a cup of tea, Haze was making her way through a six pack of soda and Van had eaten three whole chickens, four bowls of rice and was currently making short work of an entire roast pig.

"Reverse mountain is about an hour away." Haze said pointing at the map, "we will be arriving at the whirl pools in about ten minutes so we need to…" a sudden bang, causing Ayanne and Haze to grab the table to keep upright, interrupted Haze's sentence. Van flew off his chair backward releasing the leg of Ham he was eating as he fell sending it flying out an open window, van looked as though he was going to cry as the meat sailed through the air. He shot back up onto his feat.

"Okay, who did that?" he Yelled angrily, still looking at the window his meal had disappeared through. He ran out the kitchen door to the deck with Ayanne and Haze in tow, the three of them paused in surprise as the marine ship towered in front of them. Haze looked more shocked than the other two, as she saw a familiar figure standing on the bow of the ship.

_You!_ she couldn't believe it _How did you find me again?_

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**A/N: **That chapter took so long to write. I restarted many times and did parts over and over again. I really wanted to get Haze's personality and background right. Thank you again to LaZy-RaIn-DaNcEr for Haze, a brilliant character, and congratulations on her inclusion in The New Pirate King by Kisdota-The Freak Gamer, which is looking very promising and definately worth a read. So let me know how you feel after that 5984 word ordeal by reviewing =) As always characters are appreciated though they may not appear for a few chapters as I am gonna get busy doing a 2 or 3 chapter arc hopefully =P. laters people.

ShX


	6. Chapter 5 The Captains

**A/N:**Well here we are again =) I am just about managing to keep up with my target of updating once a week. Thank you for all the reviews I reached 30 which I am amazed by for my first ever story. So thanks to everyone who reviewed. Please keep on submitting characters even if they don't get used I really enjoy seeing all your creativity. =)

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**Chapter 5.**

**The Captains.**

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Captain Halcyon stared at the ceiling of his cabin as he rocked backwards on his chair. He was sat with his legs rested on his desk and his arms behind his head, a look of severe boredom was planted across his face as he whistled to himself. Halcyon had dark blue eyes and short, messy light brown hair. He was quite young no older than twenty five and was wearing standard issue navy captain shoes with suit pants which were black with white pinstripes, his top however was not standard issue, it was a white T-shirt with baggy black sleeves and a picture of an angry cartoon Panda's face on it, on his hands he wore white leather gloves with the world government symbol on the back.

The door burst open as a nervous looking soldier stumbled in before tripping over and flying into the cupboard to the left of Halcyon which startled the captain causing him to wobble backwards nearly falling off his chair but grabbed the desk to steady himself.

"Hello Shaw." Halcyon grunted standing over his ensign who was upside down against the small cupboard.

"C-Captain, I got this urgent message. An inn keeper just reported that 'The demon lord' is on Privateer." Shaw rolled onto his feet to right himself. Halcyons eyes widened momentarily as he heard the report.

"Privateer you say, well then, set a course for the whirlpools just before reverse mountain." he ordered returning to his desk and lighting a cigar.

"Yes s.. wait what?!" the ensign stumbled to a stop before he left nearly tripping over again. "But he is on Privateer, that's where we have been ordered to…" Halcyon looked up at Shaw briefly. "Whirlpools got it Captain" Shaw corrected hurriedly evacuating the room.

Halcyon stared at the ceiling once more. _"What do you want with me?" _The memories of the girl played back in his head and a repentant look flashed across his face before he fell asleep. The next day Halcyon slowly made his way up to the deck, putting on his sleeveless captains coat and rubbing his eyes to try and wake himself up. He kicked open the door to the deck, causing all the marines on board to jump to attention.

"So who is this visitor that is worth waking me up for." he said grumpily (he did not enjoy being woken up). "Ah well if it isn't our favourite former vice admiral. What is it my humble ship can do for you?" The vice admiral was wearing a uniform similar to the marines on the ship except it was dark blue instead of white, he wore a long black leather jacket which came to his ankles but was decorated in the same fashion as a vice admirals navy coat.

"My superior was very disappointed that you let the girl go without intervention. He demands an explanation." The mans serious expression did not flicker for even a second. As he spoke Halcyon adjusted his leather gloves while listening to what his guest had to say.

"Whoever ordered me to intervene may take orders from your _superior _but I don't. Now if that is all." Halcyon turned and walked away as the man replied.

"I have been instructed to show you the error of your ways if you said anything along those lines." the vice admiral turned to clay using his logia ability, as he did Halcyon smiled and spun round drawing his five point staff but not snapping it into a solid pole, instead he whipped it round his body and swung it toward toward the vice admiral hitting him in the face with a loud crack, the vice admirals expression turned from confidence to horror as he turned back to normal and flew over the port side railing and dropped into the sea.

"Sir, should we go and bring him back aboard I don't thi…"

"He was a marine for twenty years I am sure he will do just fine." Halcyon interupted with a grim smirk as he headed back toward his cabin slamming the door behind him.

(--)

Five days had passed by and Halcyon was once again napping at his desk, even in his sleep he could hear the sound of his clumsy ensign rushing down the stairs. The door flew open as Shaw tumbled across the room with incredible momentum. Without opening his eyes Halcyon reached across and pulled the cupboard he had found to replace the last one Shaw broke, out the way causing his ensign to slam into the wall instead. Halcyon opened a lazy eye and looked down at Shaw who was in a heap against the wall his eyes spinning as he saw stars.

"Cap-tain, why is your cabin all the way down here at the bottom of the ship?" He asked coming to his sense and rubbing the lump on his head.

"To discourage visitors, what do you want?" he grunted sleepily and closing his eye again.

"Just came to inform you that we have reached the destination you specified"

"Did you see any ships on the way?" Shaw shook his head. Halcyon didn't open his eyes but somehow knew his ensigns reply.

"Excellent" he said smiling.

"What now?" Shaw asked hesitantly, at this point he wasn't even sure if his captain was awake. Shaw was an awkward man. He had short spiky blond hair which donned a blue band around his forehead and had dark brown eyes. He always wore standard issue navy attire.

"Nothing, we just wait here. Let me know when the ship gets close." he mumbled as he drifted off to sleep.

"Ship? What sh.." Shaw saw no point finishing his sentence, the captain definitely wasn't listening anymore, he sighed and left closing the door behind him.

"Ata boy Shaw." Halcyon muttered with a small smile as the door closed.

Two days passed without incident, and Halcyon had slept through most of it, but now he had a feeling he should be up on deck. Marines scuttled about the ship around him performing the preparations the captain had instructed. Halcyon stopped giving orders and headed toward the bow of the ship. He looked toward the horizon and narrowed his eyes slightly then smiled. _Ok lets find out just what you've got. _He thought as the yell came from the crows nest.

"A ship! On the horizon dead ahead!" the lookout shouted, as he put down his telescope.

"Ok men, ready the canons." Halcyon said calmly, "Remember warning shots only."

As the ship came into range the marines fired, as instructed the shots landed either side of the ship causing it to rock violently, a puzzled expression shot across both Halcyon's and the marines faces as a leg of ham flew out of the cabin window and hit the ocean with a splash, a cry and a yell came from inside the cabin before the door flew open and three figures emerged, only one of which he recognised.

(--)

_How could he be waiting for me here? _Haze thought, panic rushing through her body as she gazed upon Halcyons silhouette against the midday sun.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to my ship?" Ayanne and Van yelled in unison before glaring at each other and saying, "What do you mean your ship?" again in unison.

"Hey I made it."

"Yeah, for me. I paid for it and stole the ship it's made from." the two folded their arms and looked away from each other.

Then Van pointed at Halcyon angrily, "You owe me a ham Jerk!"

Halcyon smiled slightly, then gestured toward the marines around him and they piled onto the ship. Ayanne surrounded her body with carbon as she rushed the marine crowd, knocking any that couldn't evade her overboard. At the same time Van grabbed the sleeping Mik from his shoulder who opened one eye then yelped in shock at the crowd of marines he saw. Van swung Mik toward the marines as he turned into a chain with a dragon head weight on the end and skilfully manoeuvred the chain whipping away marines all over the place, two or three at a time. Van pulled back the chain catching the dragon head in his right hand before raising his leg as he drew back his hand and threw the head like a baseball toward a lone marine. The weight flew with incredible speed colliding with the marine driving him backwards and slamming into ten other men.

As Ayanne and Van fought the hundreds of marines that poured onto the boat Haze stood staring at Halcyon. She hadn't taken her horrified eyes off him since she had stepped outside. Unconscious marines flew past her and fell in front of her but nothing snapped her out of her fearful trance.

The marines slashed at Ayanne countless times before being knocked across the ship with incredible power, a marine jumped at her from behind bringing his blade down hard on her back. The blade snapped much to the horror of the now far less confident marine. Ayanne turned, her green eyes glowed through the gaps of her carbon mask, the marine screamed girlishly and turned to run but was stopped in his tracks. A large carbon claw grabbed his collar and lifted him off his feet, in her armour the 5'4 Ayanne stood a monstrous 7 feet tall. She raised the now crying man off the floor and threw him at a charging squad of his comrades.

"They sure are something." Shaw muttered to his captain as the two stood and watched the marines getting annihilated by the two pirates.

"They certainly are but this isn't enough. I think it's time I made an appearance." Halcyon said with a small grin. "You stay here." Shaw nodded.

Halcyon dropped from the bow of the navy vessel onto the comparatively small pirate ship and walked through the crowds of marines toward Ayanne. He drew his folded five point staff from his sleeveless coat, his baggy black sleeves flowed in the wind. The staff snapped together as he approached the monstrous carbon figure. Ayanne was easily knocking away the marines that attacked her but they suddenly stopped and separated as Halcyon approached. Ayanne looked up, then charged at him. He calmly spun around, returning his staff to its five part chain form and snapping it back together as it struck Ayanne's armour, shattering it like glass and sending her hurtling through the kitchen wall. She crashed into the sink smashing it into tiny pieces and only managed to lift her head for a moment before passing out.

Haze watched as Halcyon dropped down, her eyes widened as he walked toward Ayanne. She wanted to interfere, shout, anything but she couldn't. She was frozen with fear. _Run! S_he willed Ayanne to somehow hear her thoughts, but it was no good. Halcyon spun his staff colliding with Ayanne's stomach. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Haze yelled, snapping out of her petrifaction and running toward the frowning captain.

Van also saw Ayanne crash through the kitchen. _But her armour! _He thought, unable to understand how it had been so easily broken. He too tried to rush the captain but was inundated by marines as every man apart from Halcyon was now attacking him. He fended them off easily but couldn't get a chance to break through them.

Haze ran toward Halcyon "Kiiro: Bakushin" she yelled as she shot toward the captain, a yellow streak behind her. Halcyon blocked her blade just about bringing up his staff in time and sliding back from the momentum of the strike. He pushed her back and raised his staff, holding it at one end and striking down hard. Haze raised Aka-hana to block the staff. It collided with the katana but the two end sections slackened, bending past hazes guard and striking her shoulder. As the staff hit her she felt her energy drain away almost instantly. She was overcome with dizziness. All she could do is watch as he brought the bottom of the staff round for a follow up attack, striking her temple and knocking her out cold.

Seeing his second crew mate knocked out by this ham ruining fiend was too much. "Mik, lets heat things up!" The dragon head weights eyes glowed green as it opened its mouth and fire flowed out, engulfing the head and the rest of the chain. "Dragon rage!" Van spun round manipulating the chain into a spiral ascending toward the sky, forming a tornado of fire and steel. The marines surrounding Van were sent flying in all directions across the ship, either colliding with different parts of the ship or going overboard. A fire burned in Van's eyes as he stared angrily at Halcyon, who was crouching by Haze. Halcyon stood up and turned to face his new opponent. The two captains were the only ones left standing. Van wrapped the chain around his hand and wrist as it turned into the one handed dragon head Katana. Halcyon readied his staff. Van charged him, swiping at Halcyon viciously as his rage overflowed. Every attack was blocked expertly but with each strike Halcyon was knocked back a few steps. More importantly with each collision the Katana in Van's hand shuddered. Halcyon noticed this and smiled as he swung one end of the staff at Van who blocked as expertly as his opponent. The weapons clashed and sparked, locked together as the two captains pushed against each others guard. Suddenly Vans katana turned back into a small silver dragon who clutched desperately to the end of the staff before passing out and falling to the floor.

"Mik!" Van shouted, attempting to aid the dragon before looking back up at his opponent. "What did you do?"

Halcyon smiled coldly, "You should be careful, although people and creatures with devils fruit abilities gain incredible powers, they also gain a profound weakness. That weakness is kairouseki, a rare stone that drains devil fruit users of their powers. A rare stone that I chose to make a staff from, enabling me to gain the advantage over pirates unlucky enough to use their devil fruit abilities against me." Halcyon twirled his staff in his white gloved hands.

Van said nothing but charged the marine captain, jumping, spinning in mid air and throwing a kick toward Halcyons head, missing him by millimetres. The moment Van landed threw a straight fisted punch with both hands, one over the other, at Halcyons stomach with a heavy thud sending him sliding back holding his ribs, as Van punched he slammed his jaw shut then roared sending an enormous burst of fire from his mouth. The flames licked at Halcyons coat as he jumped over the attack, in mid air Halcyon hurled his staff like a spear at Van. Van immediately recognised that the throw would head way over his head but the moments distraction cost him. Halcyon disappeared from the air and materialized right in front of Van, driving an uppercut into his chin, lifting him clean off the floor. As Van flew into the air the staff that Halcyon had thrown before it collided with his chest forcing him into the floor with an incredibly loud bang and a disgusting crack as his ribs shattered. Even Shaw winced as he watched from the marine ship. Halcyon walked over to his staff and flicked it up into his hands with his foot.

"I will beat you." Van spluttered as he staggered to his feet holding his ribs.

He clenched his fists. His vision was blurry and he felt uncontrollably dizzy but with a growl he lunged at the captain. He punched twice toward Halcyons face but was dodged with ease. Without stopping the flow of his attack, Van placed one of his hands on the floor and spun his legs round his body, almost like he was break dancing, knocking his opponents legs from beneath him, and then again, without stopping he spun full circle, still resting on his one arm he planted a two footed kick into Halcyons chest before he'd landed, sending him flying across the ship. Halcyon picked himself up of the wooden floor and looked back up at Van.

"Hmm, you're good. But not good enough." he said brushing himself off, wincing.

"For who? You? I can take you on just fine." Van held his stomach, trying to stay up right.

"We'll see." Halcyon smiled briefly, then disappeared. Van saw a slight blur of the captain but not enough to tell where he was heading, in fact he could barely see him at all. Halcyon appeared behind Van, _So fast_ Van thought before being struck in the back by Halcyons right arm, propelling him across the deck. Van rolled in midair attempting to right himself but Halcyon appeared next to him once more, this time striking him into the deck with his staff. Van slowly rose back to his feet and glared at Halcyon, who was now standing on the opposite end of the deck.

"I-I will-will not lose." blood slipped out over his bottom lip as he spoke.

"I think you're mistaken." Halcyon replied looking serious. Vans vision blurred as he fell backwards. The cloudless sky was the last thing he saw as he blacked out, hitting the floor with a thud.

(--)

Conciousness slowly returned to the battered Haze. She attempted to feel the aching wound on her head but her hands were stopped by a chain attached to both the floor and the strange handcuffs round her wrists. Haze strained trying to use her powers to break the restraints but she couldn't get anything to happen and felt her energy drain away the more she struggled.

"That won't work." The voice came from outside the cell and it was calm and gentle. It would have been almost soothing if it didn't make her so uncomfortable. Halcyon sat in a chair just outside of the marine cell Haze was being held in.

"What do you want with me?" she shouted, attempting to move toward him but being yanked back by the chain binding her to the far side of the cage.

"I have absolutely no interest in you." Haze looked at him surprised by his response.

"There are, however, people who are very interested in you. Whoever they are, they were powerful enough to get my superior officers to order me to track you down. It takes a _very_ powerful person to wield that kind of influence. Whatever it is they see in you must be something special. Something they can't get anywhere else." Halcyon lit a cigar and blew a large cloud of smoke toward the ceiling.

"In short this was a test, a test that you and your crewmates failed. If you can't beat me then you will stand no chance against what awaits you in the grand line. I am not willing to let you hand over whatever it is you possess to these people." He turned to Haze who stared at him, less angry than before, although she didn't like being arrested she could understand Halcyons motives, and for some reason that made him much less fearsome.

"What will happen to me?" Haze asked, looking up as the marine captain rose from his seat, stubbing out his cigar under his shoe.

"Don't worry you will be well looked after." he smiled warmly at Haze and she smiled back.

"What about Van and Ayanne?" Haze asked hopefully. Halcyons smile disappeared and he walked up the stairs to the deck, saying nothing.

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**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review and let me know what you think.I also have my girlfriend to thank for helping me correct the grammar cause word is still being unhelpful, she punched me afterwards so swings and roundabouts I suppose (she insists i make it clear that I deserved it). Also I look forward to any character submissions, peace out =)

ShX


	7. Chapter 6 Breakout part 1

**A/N:** This is a shorter one, I have had to write it around college work, the title for this chapter is from a book I read when I was about 9 lol thought it was appropriate. Hope you enjoy it. =)

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**Chapter 6.**

**The firework makers daughter.  
**

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The bottom floor of the navy prison was dark and depressing, the monotonous grey walls appeared to go on forever. Cell after cell of pirates, murderers and thieves lined the walls, each as dangerous looking as the last, pleading and complaining as the monstrous growling echoed through the corridors. As halcyon walked down the hall way the sound got louder and louder, sounding more brutal with every step, he eventually stopped at the cell producing the noise by this point it was deafening . There lay Van the 18 year old blue haired pirate captain he had arrested a week before who hadn't awoken since and had apparently caused numerous complaints from both prisoners and guards on account of his incredibly loud snoring. The captain removed his five point staff from his jacket snapping it into its pole form, he then proceeded to jab violently at the young pirates back until he finally woke up.

"Huh? Wha? Just five more minu… *Snore*" Van collapsed back onto the floor and continued snoring. At this point Halcyon looked annoyed (well as annoyed as he could ever be bothered to show) and whacked Van in the rear sending him flying into his cell wall.

"Ow! Dammitall! What the f… Hey this isn't my room. Where am I?" Van glanced round his cell. "Am I in Ayanne's room?"

"Like I would have a room like that you ASS!" Ayanne yelled from the cell opposite lunging toward the bars like an animal and pointlessly trying to grab at Van in a throttling gesture.

"Oh. So… Where am I?" Van asked scratching his head in confusion.

"This is the new south blue marine prison; Croften Vale." Halcyon replied slightly stunned by the teenagers ostensible stupidity.

"South Blue? Awww maaaaan. It's going to take ages to get back to reverse mountain from here." Van said looking obviously upset by the news.

"Yeah it will 'cause you're never getting out of here." The marine captain replied sharply, somewhat irritated by the pirates response.

"But what have I done?" Van inquired, standing up suddenly.

"You're a pirate and…"

"Oh right yeah. That makes sense." Van interrupted sitting back down looking content with the response.

"Er…" the captain stood confused by Vans stupidity, it must have been contagious as Halcyon felt more confused the longer he stood with the young pirate. "I'll be back to talk to you soon." he eventually continued before turning and walking away. Halcyon met up with his ensign as he reached the end of the corridor of prison cells. Shaw was waiting patiently and to attention the entire time stopping only when he somehow tripped while standing perfectly still.

"Put a few extra guards on duty down here until we transfer our new guests to a more secure holding." Halcyon instructed his subordinate without stopping or even looking at him.

"Yes sir." Shaw replied as he joined his captains stride flawlessly before tripping and falling behind slightly. "Would you like me to stand guard down here captain?"

"That shouldn't be necessary Shaw, but keep an ear out for any disturbances."

(--)

Back at the prison cells Van was fidgeting uncomfortably in his cuffs while glancing round his cell. Ayanne sat in the cell opposite staring at him.

"So what now captain?"

"Huh, hmm not really sure I hadn't expected this to happen. Man that guy was strong huh?" he replied in an almost childlike tone.

"Did you just say you fought Halcyon? Wow that must have been tough." The female voice came from the cell adjacent to Vans. " He is scaaaaaar-y"

"He's not so tough. I could beat him easy." Van said clenching his fist in front of him. The girl slowly looked around the edge of the cell Van was standing in, Van followed her gaze and the contradiction became apparent. "Oh right yeah." he said with a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "Well next time he's mine!"

The girl didn't look convinced, she was quite a short girl standing a mere 5ft. She was quite thin and wore a black tank top with a light purple skirt and slightly darker shaded leg warmers of the same colour, strangely she was also wearing pale pink roller blades which she was able to stand up in as though they were merely shoes. The girls dark purple hair was tied up in buns on either side of the top of her head with a long pony tail coming from each and both ending with a metal ring near her ankles.

"So what are you in for?" Van asked to lead the subject away from his defeat.

"Well I come from a long line of firework makers and I was experimenting with one of my recipes and… well lets say it didn't go to plan."

"That doesn't sound that bad, what have you actually been charged with?" Ayanne asked intrigued as to how someone could be arrested for such a minor thing.

"Erm, one count of arson, twenty two counts of vandalism and damage to property, five counts of grievous bodily harm, one count of improper use of cattle and eighteen counts of assaulting a marine officer." The girl stood smiling innocently. " It really wasn't my fault, I needed something heavy to keep the launcher still how was I supposed to know the release mechanism would fail and the cow would fly so easily, that cow was fine once they had rescued him from the rubble of the first house. But once the flames spread to the wine cellar the situation escalated quickly the marines scared me I was just protecting myself at that point." The girl appeared to be getting flustered by recalling the incident. Ayanne stood with her mouth wide open speechless.

"Wow cool. You make fireworks?" Van yelled throwing his arms in the air in a celebratory manor.

"That's all you heard!?" Ayanne shouting pointing angrily at Van.

"Yeah I do. And they are the best fireworks in the world!"

"Awesome, well that's that then, when we get outta here you have to come with us. You are gonna join my crew."

The girls eyes lit up momentarily before she managed to get a hold of her emotions and replied "Yeah maybe. If I'm not doing anything I mean. I'm a very busy woman." she said nonchalantly.

"Awesome! It's settled you're our new crewmate… erm what's your name?" Van asked excitedly.

This time the girl couldn't hold it back she took a deep breathe and her eyes lit up, "~My name is Poca! Poca Loca! And I'm from the island Semoka!~" she sang as she danced slightly.

"Awesome!" Van yelled throwing his arms in the air again.

"Van she is obviously some sort of weir-do?" Ayanne looked at Vans empty cell in puzzlement, the warped unlatched handcuffs lay on the floor covered in scorch marks.

"~Poca! Poca Loca! From the island of Semoka~" Loca was still singing but was now accompanied by Van, who was now also singing the song with his arm round her shoulder as they danced in a Can-Can like style.

"How the hell did you do that!?" Ayanne shouted pointing once again accusingly at Van.

"~From the island of…~ Huh what ya mean?" Van stopped singing and looked at Ayanne in puzzlement before pointing at the melted bars that connected his and Loca's cells.

"Get me out of here." Ayanne growled.

"OK hold out the cuffs" Ayanne complied. Van ground his flint teeth together causing them to spark and look of concentration suddenly masked Vans face as the spark became a flame in his mouth. Ayanne's eyes widened.

"On second thoughts captain just go get the key." she said pointing down the hall. Van nodded hopping through the melted gap in the bars back to his own cell and blowing a thin blue concentrated flame onto the lock and effortlessly swinging open the cell door. Van stepped out and turned left toward the guard post, a large number of guards ran towards him drawing their guns, suddenly a shot from behind hit the floor next to Van.

"Stop right there!" the marine standing behind Van shouted, Van turned round to see a man pointing a large rifle at him. The gun powder from the shot slowly drifted toward Van getting inhaled up his nose as he breathed in causing him to sneeze and inadvertently propelling a huge fireball from his mouth which collided with the marine sending him flying down the long corridor into the wall at the end. The unexpected fire also sent Van flying in the opposite direction colliding with the large group of marines who were charging toward him knocking them all unconscious as they smacked against the other end of the corridor cushioning Vans impact. Van sat on top of the pile of marines slightly dazed rubbing his head.

"Oo thanks pal." He said hopping off the crumpled heap of white and blue grabbing the keys to the cells off an unconscious marine as he went.

Van ran back to Ayanne's cell and unlocked the door and then the cuffs. Ayanne rubbed her wrists and flexed her hands relieved to escape the discomfort and dizziness of her kairouseki handcuffs. Next Van unlocked Loca's cell and cuffs she too flexed her hands in relief. The three prisoners ran up the corridor into the guards barracks, luckily it was empty, all the guards were in a pile from Vans _killer sneeze_. Ayanne pointed toward the marine uniforms hung up in a few of the lockers.

"That will look much less conspicuous." she said heading toward the uniforms. "Everyone put one on."

"Good idea." Loca said sliding the blue pants over her leg warmers and skirt.

"Thanks I have my mo.. Where are your clothes you pervert!?"

"I am getting changed like you said" he replied hopping into the blue pants. Loca blushed and turned away.

"I meant over the top of your normal clothes!"

"Oh. Well, too late now." Van put on his white navy shirt, re-wrapping his scarf over the top before wedging himself into a marine cap. Once the three were fully disguised they looked in the wide mirror along the barracks wall. Loca shifted uncomfortably at the sight of her navy adorned appearance. Van grinned at his 'excellent' disguise work and Ayanne shook her head in disbelief.

"There is no way this is going to work. Maybe we should think of something else." but it was too late Van had already left the room, Ayanne and Loca hurried after him.

The three pirates walked down the corridor in a line attempting to march in there impression of a marine squad. They eventually walked passed a real squad, Van strode passed confidently, Ayanne and Loca hurried by doing there best to look like they belonged while simultaneously trying to avoid eye contact.. The marines were a few yards passed before stopping, and turning round suspiciously, all three let out a little yelp as they turned to see the three pirate fists approaching their faces.

"OK screw this." Ayanne said as she lugged the last of the three unconscious marines into a nearby supply cupboard. "Let's just go." she continued as she tore off the marine disguise. Loca quickly did the same, relieved to be out of the awful marine clothes. Van started to take off his marine clothes but was quickly clipped across the back of his head by Ayanne disapprovingly. "Na-ah not you, it's your own fault for not leaving your old clothes on underneath."

"We need to go find Haze." Van said about to rush off.

"Wait we don't even know where she is." Ayanne said grabbing his arm.

"While we are down here I need to grab my equipment, it's really important. It will be on this floor, they keep all confiscated equipment here." Loca added.

Van looked confused for a moment, then what appeared to be intense pain. "I got it!" He said all eventually like a light bulb had turned on above his head. "You two go look for the equipment, I bet that's where they are keeping Mik as well. Get everything back and swipe anything that looks valuable too." Ayanne's eyes lit up looking like Berri symbols. Van looked slightly scared. "Mik first!" he demanded stubbornly.

"Ok. How are you going to find Haze? We have no idea where she is."

"Well she will be at the top." Van said looking at Ayanne as if it was obvious.

"You have no way of knowing that!" Ayanne shouted, annoyed at the way, somehow, Van made her feel like she was stupid for a moment.

"Trust me." He smiled and ran off.

Ayanne turned to Loca. "Well lets get to stealing us some shiny things." she said grinning maliciously. Her facial expression creeped Loca out but regardless the two girls headed in the opposite direction to Van toward the storage Vault.

(--)

Van had rushed through the prison with incredible speed heading towards the top, he had gone up four floors then down two and then up another one gaining him three floors. "Awesome, this must be the place." Van said to himself rubbing his hands together, pleased with his quick work. "RELEASE MY FRIEND YOU NAVY SCUMBAGS!" he yelled as he kicked open the double doors. Van froze like a deer in headlights as he stepped into the room, it was filled with marines, all paused mid mouthful as they all had food. The word Galley was printed above the door way above Vans head. Eventually the confusion passed and all the marines rose from there seats drawing swords and rifles.

"Oh!" Van said as he stared at the few hundred angry faces. "This isn't the right place. Damn. I think I'm lost"

* * *

**A/N:** Well that's it. Thank you very much to Sparkling-nexis137 for creating Poca Loca (must resist urge to sing) awesome job! Please review to let me know what ya think. Also characters and what not, be they good or bad, hit me up cause I loves dem =[).

ShX.


	8. Chapter 7 Breakout part 2

**A/N:** It has taken much longer than I had hoped to get this chapter done. I got broken snowboarding so I lost a week of writing. Well that isn't strictly true, I was on pain killers (alot of them) so although I wrote a fair amount of this chapter, it made literally no sense. Most of whats going on in this chapter is simultaneous which is really hard to write if you have no idea what your doing. So yeah.... stay off pain killers is what I'm trying to say. =) oh and enjoy X)

* * *

**Chapter 7.**

**Breakout part 2: Alarming Developments.  
**

* * *

"C'mon, c'mon, I have been working on this too long to fail now. Just a lil more." The ragged looking inmate fiddled with the lock pick frantically *click*. His eyes lit up with joy as the cell door swung open. "Hahahahaha excellent, no prison can hold me." He yelled stepping out of his cage flinging away his makeshift lock pick and dancing. Suddenly alarms sounded blared around him, he froze mid movement a shocked expression on his face and a slight eye twitch. Down the corridor ahead a marine with spiky blue hair and a scarf skidded round the corner into view and ran toward the escaping inmate. The scruffy man readied himself for a fight but the marine sprinted straight past him, he looked over his shoulder to see the young man disappear around another corner. The prisoner returned to his plan of escape only to be struck with fear as an entire battalion of marines came clambering round the corner the other marine had appeared from. The prisoner immediately jumped back into his cell to avoid the charging hordes, he waited for them to pass the cage completely then pushed it to leave once again and resume his master plan. The cage didn't budge, he patted his pockets for his pick until he noticed it on the floor.

"FFFF…!"

(--)

Ayanne and Loca slowly and silently moved into the vault area, the two unconscious guards had been carefully placed out of sight. Loca immediately skated toward a pair of small beige bags and a light purple backpack, she happily attached the bags to her waist and slung the backpack over her shoulders. Ayanne noticed a rather impressive looking pile of gold which she quickly moved toward, her eyes had once again lit up with the berri sign as she picked up an expensive looking gold necklace. The second she picked it up alarms screeched around the vault and red lights began to flash, _no way._ She thought grasping her newly found treasure tightly. Loca turned to Ayanne with a panicked look.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing." Ayanne shrugged and shook her head before quickly putting the necklace behind her back.

"What was that? There is no way that would set off an alarm." Loca pointed out.

Ayanne stopped to think a moment then looked up angrily. "Van."

(--)

Van stood staring at the marines for several seconds then grinned. "Any of you guys seen my friend? She is about this tall and has red hair." He looked around the room hopefully as he spoke but was met only with anger and weaponry. One of the many marines left his food and pulled a small handle on the wall which immediately triggered high pitched, very loud, alarm and red lights round the entire base. Like sprinters hearing the starting pistol the marines charged the moment the alarm sounded. Van confronted the first twenty soldiers as they closed in on him easily knocking them back toward other charging men, but was quickly overrun. Van turned back out of the galley and ran laughing to himself at the excitement of it all as the marines followed in pursuit. Van skidded round corner after corner passing cell after cell as well as a rather battered man. As he ran down what seemed like the hundredth corridor Van was surprised to see another large group of marines running toward him down the hall way. Van slid to a halt and glanced round for an escape route but there were no turnings or doorways to go to and the marines were quickly closing in on both sides.

"Screw it." Van said to himself before grinning at the oncoming marines and slamming his teeth together, his mouth filled with flames. Just before Van let loose his attack a marine approached from behind hitting Van across the back of the head. Van bent forward from the impact of the hit causing him to unleash his fiery burst straight at the floor beneath him propelling him up, into and through the ceiling, not just the one above his head, but the one above and the one above that, until he was out of sight.

(--)

Back down in the vault Ayanne and Loca stood stunned and confused, the alarm screeched around them and the room flashed with red lights.

"This _cannot_ be good." Ayanne growled looking toward the entrance to the vault. Loca was doing the same.

"I've got a baaaaad feeling." Loca mumbled reaching into one of the bags at her side.

Shadows flitted in the red flashes outside as footsteps approached the doorway, then there was silence. Ayanne and Loca glanced at each other then back at the door as the seconds passed, Loca pulled a pair of odd looking gauntlets from her backpack and strapped them to her hands flexing her fingers for a comfortable fit. Suddenly the first wave of marines burst through the doorway, Ayanne immediately stepped forward but was cut off by Loca who stepped in front of her. She reached into one of the beige bags and pulled out a rocket, swiping the rigid fuse along her gauntlet, igniting it, as she threw the rocket toward the crowd of marines it arced through the air until the fuse ran out and the rocket accelerated forward hitting the marines head-on exploding into a miraculous display of colour. The marines collided with the walls with a sickening cack their fronts scorched from the explosion. Loca narrowed her eyes at the doorway her eyes flicked from shadow to shadow then she smiled. She grabbed a rocket from each pocket then struck each off the opposite gauntlet igniting the fuses and throwing the rockets in a singular fluid motion the rockets fired propelling them toward the doorway spiralling round each other leaving a double helix trail, the rockets disappeared through the door way then exploded out of sight sending unconscious marines flying into the vault. Loca turned to Ayanne smiling confidently.

"Don't worry I can hold them off, grab what ya can." Ayanne looked at her for a moment then grinned. _Maybe the captain wasn't so crazy after all._

Ayanne turned toward the mounds of treasure with a now familiar glint in her eyes. Behind her Loca danced and cart wheeled hurling rockets at each wave of marines while dodging the oncoming gunfire. She suddenly stopped, reaching over her shoulder into her purple backpack, still dodging the torrent of bullets she pulled out a large black and white rocket aswell as a contraption that didn't look as though it should be able to fit in her bag at all. As she pulled it out the device folded out into what looked like a huge revolver, she placed the rocket into the gun then placed the revolver on her shoulder she pulled the oversized trigger which fired the black and white rocket from the barrel. "~Kumo-Roketto~" she sang as the rocket hurtled toward the now large crowd of marines. On impact it let out a rather anticlimactic explosion releasing a sticky black and white substance which resembled spider webbing. The marines hit by the rocket struggled and fidgeted but to no avail the more they moved the more stuck they became, Loca glanced up smiling grimly as she held a long tube in her right hand. She struck it against her left gauntlet it emitted a large strong shower of sparks, "~Sparkler Sweep.~" She whispered as she threw the large sparkler toward the entangled marines the black and white goo exploded the moment the sparks made contact knocking the encased marines in all directions. Loca used the moment of freedom to scan the room her eyes shone as she noticed two smaller version of her oversized revolver, these were still bigger than a standard gun, one was white with the word Blanc engraved on the handle in black lettering, the other was black with Noir engraved on the handle in white. She grabbed the guns flicking out the ammo cylinders and scooping the guns through the bags on either side of her waste. She whipped the cylinders back into the guns while turning back toward the door firing off a single rocket at the marines attempting to enter, it was as accurate as a pistol but had a far more explosive results, the rocket erupted into a purple flame on impact. The glow lit up Loca's face, "Bring it!" she yelled as she stared at the doorway strewn with marine bodies a fiery glint in her eyes. Ten minutes had gone by and Loca had taken out countless marines while Ayanne filled bag after bag with marine treasures and supplies, loading them onto their ship, she had even had time to do some minor repairs to the damage sustained during the face-off with Halcyon. It had been a minute or so since the last wave of marines had come through the doorway.

"I think that was the last of 'em." Loca said spinning her revolvers round her fingers and slotting them into the holsters attached to the bags round her waste. She turned to Ayanne giving a peace sign and a contented smile. Ayanne returned the gesture, impressed at the new members skills.

The moment was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps slowly approaching from the corridor outside the doorway, Loca whipped out her revolvers in preparation and Ayanne armoured up, just in case. A single marine walked through the doorway, he was average height and had short blonde spiky hair he slowly approached the two pirate girls before tripping on an unconscious marine causing him to fall flat on his face *thud*. The young marine looked up with a bump on his forehead, tears welled up in his dark brown eyes.

"Who left this guy here. Dammit that hurt, atatatata." He stood up brushing the dust from his clothes. His serious composed expression returned as he looked back up at the pirates who stood in stunned silence at the clumsy young man. "Aren't you… one of the pirates Halcyon caught last week?" Shaw asked looking curiously at Ayanne. "And that means you must be… um weren't you a guy?" he continued now pointing at Loca, who looked confused and pointed at herself quizzically.

"It's not the same person you tool." Ayanne shouted losing her patience in her usual manner.

"Oh good. The captain hates paperwork and he would have had to do it all again if he had made a mistake like that." Shaw looked genuinely relieved.

"Ok that's it. This guys a fool, lets just take him out and be done with it." Ayanne said gesturing at Loca and rushing Shaw.

"No wai…" Loca's warning trailed off as she watched in helpless dismay. Ayanne swung at Shaw who disappeared from in front of her, at the same time a kick connected with her back sending her face first into a wall. Shaw landed softly, his expression completely different from before, it wasn't just serious. It was deadly.

(--)

Haze shifted uncomfortably in her chair, it was an extremely comfortable chair but she couldn't think of anything that would make her comfortable in Halcyons quarters. It was a surprisingly well decorated room, a hand carved desk and reclining chair sat in front of the large window, the walls were plain white with a blue pattern along the edges. Haze stared at her cuffed hands, she didn't enjoy being in Kairouseki handcuffs not only did it mean she couldn't escape, it also made her feel as though she hadn't eaten for weeks. She heard footsteps approaching the doorway, she immediately looked at the floor as Halcyon enter the room. He walked in without saying a word. In his hand he carried a small cage which contained a miniature silver dragon who was on his back sleeping and blowing little smoke rings out of his nose as he snored quietly. Halcyon put the cage on his desk and hung his captains jacket on the coat stand next to it.

"How are you feeling?" He asked turning to Haze. She looked away letting out a distained growl in response. "I have just paid your comrades a visit." Haze immediately looked back at him, she couldn't hide her worry about them.

"How are they? What did you do with them?"

"They are fine. For now." He was about to continue but suddenly a high pitched alarm rang throughout the prison and a small red light flashed on the desk.

"Whoops, looks like something's happening. I wonder who it could be." Haze said sarcastically, she was almost 100% sure who it would be.

Halcyon moved over to the den-den mushi on a stand in the corner of the room, it rang for several minutes but there was no reply. Halcyon growled to himself before hurriedly grabbing his coat and leaving the room slamming the door behind him. He fumbled with his keys swearing to himself as he locked the door to his room, it wasn't often that something flustered Halcyon but this had not been expected, not so soon anyway. The second Halcyon turned away from the door to investigate the cause of the commotion a series of loud crashes came from beneath the floor sounding as though they were getting closer and closer. _What the hell is… _Halcyons thought was interrupted as the last two loud crashes came from inside his office. He didn't bother with keys this time he quickly spun and kicked down the door to his quarters, his eyes widened in surprise as he entered what appeared to be a bomb sight, his hand crafted desk had been obliterated and there was a hole in the floor underneath it, Halcyons eyes slowly rose to look at the human shaped hole in the ceiling as sunlight broke through from the outside world. The caged dragon was nowhere to be seen he, quickly glanced across the room, Haze was still there much to his relief, she appeared to be as stunned as he was. An excited yell came from above the ceiling both Haze and Halcyon looked up in confusion, neither of their brains had processed what was happening just yet.

"Woohoo! Yahahahaha." The voice from above roared.

"Is that V…" the ceiling exploded into rubble before Haze could finish as Van came hurtling toward her, cage in hand and a big grin on his face. "Wait what are you. No!" she yelled as he crashed into her driving them both through the floor onto the level below.

(--)

"Hey quit struggling. You're making this very difficult." Van said as he dashed down the corridor.

"I will not. Put me down right now!" Haze said her face bright red with embarrassment as she dangled over Vans shoulder. "I can run on my own. Van? Vaaaaaan!" the two pirates shot passed a crossroad in the corridors, as they did marines poured in from both directions and chased after them. Haze stared wide eyed as she watched the fifty marines charging after them a mere 4 feet away from her face.

"Van hurry up!" She yelled struggling even more now.

"Its Ok. I have a plan."

"Few that's a relief. Wait. What sought of plan?" Haze turned to look in front of them. The corridor they were heading down led to a dead end with a rather large stained glass window decorating it.

"If we keep going this way we'll be trapped." Haze complained worriedly. Van grinned and sped up even more, the dead end grew closer and closer. "Van we have to turn and fight them, just get these cuffs off me and…" *Crash* Haze stopped as multi-coloured shards of glass showered around her and below, the floor of the corridor disappeared from beneath them replaced by the distant floor of the prison courtyard which was getting closer very quickly.

"This was your plan? Suicide? What kind of dumb-ass plan is that!?" She screamed as they plummeted toward the ground. Van said nothing, he just inhaled a deep breath before clamping his mouth shut and blowing out a spinning torrent of fire toward the floor. The two pirates rapidly decreased in speed. As they did at least thirty marines flew past them toward the floor because, as with most stampedes, the pursuing marines found stopping an issue, causing the majority to follow Van and Haze out of the twenty fourth story window but with no method of slowing themselves down. Van's feet touched down gently on the courtyard floor amongst the many marine bodies. He put Haze down and broke open Mik's cage, the dragon sleepily opened his eyes and staggered out and up Van's arm immediately returning to his slumber on Van's shoulder. Haze removed her cuffs rubbing her wrists in relief and releasing a few sparks of energy now that her devil fruit abilities had returned.

"Whoa that was cool. Let's go again." Haze said stretching out her arms in freedom and laughing. Van grinned for a moment but suddenly looked seriously toward the window they had jumped from. Standing there with the few surviving marines was Halcyon staring down at the two pirates, he adjusted his white gloves and his jacket blew in the wind. Halcyon stepped forward off the window ledge and dropped down into the courtyard, unlike the lower ranked marines Halcyon landed on his feet completely uninjured as the concrete floor cracked around him. Halcyon drew his five point staff from the left side of his coat snapping it into its pole form.

"Looks like it's time for round two. This time I'm gonna win." Van said confidently as he matched Halcyons gaze. Halcyon stared back coldly like a lion about to eat its prey.

"You broke my desk."

* * *

**A/N:** There you have it boys and girls. Hope you liked it, next chapter will conclude this mini arc in the prison I think. As always review please and submit characters, on that note I am only accepting male characters to join the crew at this point in time as poor Van is slightly outnumbered at the moment. I hope to hear from you all soon =) til next time.

ShX


	9. Chapter 8 Breakout part 3

**Chapter 8**

**Army of One.  
**

* * *

"That was my favourite desk. It took six months salary to finally afford that desk, and you obliterated it." Halcyon stood with a look in his eyes neither Van or Haze had seen previously.

He twirled his staff through his fingers and Van grabbed the small silver dragon from his shoulder, its eyes glowed green as it transformed into a blade. At this Halcyon looked even angrier.

"This is why I won't let you escape Van." He growled through his teeth.

"W-what?" Van hesitated, unable to understand the meaning behind what Halcyon said. "L-let me escape? Like you would do that anyway." He said recomposing his stance.

"This has been a test Van. A test to see how well you can protect your crew. A test of strength and a test you failed."

"I am plenty strong old man." Van growled.

"Physically yes but, mentally you have a long way to go. Did you think I wouldn't notice how blunt that blade is? Have you ever even killed anyone Van?" As Halcyon spoke, Vans guard dropped again as his eyes widened in shock. "If you aren't willing to kill for your comrades… Then you don't deserve them!" Halcyon shouted as he looked up and pointed at Van.

Van stared at the floor and his eyes fell into shadow. "I have taken lives before. But I won't kill now when it can be avoided. For someone on such a high horse have you forgotten that your weapon doesn't kill either?" Van looked up at Halcyon bringing one eye out of the shadows.

"You're right. It was foolish of me. I thought I could beat you into submission to accomplish what needed to be done. I see now that I was wrong. This time I will hold nothing back." As he spoke Halcyon moved his right hand toward the left side of his jacket pulling out a large leaf shaped blade and fitting it to the top of his five point staff. "This time you won't be leaving alive."

"I see." Van said not breaking eye contact with Halcyon. Haze was mesmerized, she hadn't seen Van look so serious for such a long period of time, her hand hovered over her Katana. "Are you ready Haze?" She nodded clasping the handle of Aka-Hana. "Well then," Van swiped the dragon katana horizontally pointing it at Halcyon as he did a wave of green glided over the blade from hilt to tip and the sharpened edge shone in the setting sunlight, "lets do this." Simultaneously Van and Haze lunged toward Halcyon. Round two had begun.

(--)

With each swipe Ayanne became more and more frustrated, no matter how fast she swung or how unlikely escape seemed Shaw just vanished and appeared on her blind spot connecting a powerful hit, which did no damage to Ayanne but sent her skidding across the floor.

With each swipe she could feel herself getting more and more exhausted. Her glowing green eyes stared at the ensign through the plates of carbon armour. Shaw stared back coldly looking the armoured figure up and down several times then he vanished appearing centimetres in front of Ayanne's face, she didn't even see him move.

"Shigan." The impact sent Ayanne flying backwards into a wall. _That impact, did he just shoot me?_ it took Ayanne a few seconds to regain her bearings she stood up and looked across to Shaw once again.

"How?" She said breathing heavily.

"Pardon? How what?" Shaw asked innocently.

"How do you move like that?" It was difficult for Ayanne to get out the full sentence.

"Oh that would be my devil fruit ability, I ate the Koutai-Koutai no mi. It enables me to teleport short distances." As he spoke Ayanne lunged at him attempting to surround him with her large reach but he disappeared and appeared behind her without even stopping his sentence.

"Now may I ask a question? Please answer truthfully. Did my last attack hurt you at all?" Shaw asked looking at Ayanne calmly. She grinned.

"That pathetic attack? Ha not even a little bit." She stated confidently.

"I wish I could believe you. But you are a pirate after all. Further study is needed." he said still remaining completely calm and disappearing once again.

_Where the hell is Loca? Wait. Further study? What's that supposed to mean? _

"Shigan!" *Bang*

(--)

Back in the court yard the battle was in full swing Haze and Van arced through the air and darted along the floor in graceful synchronicity attacking Halcyon with each pass.

Halcyon blacked every attack thrown at him but knew he couldn't stand up to this for long, he knew he was being overpowered by the pirate duo. Haze lunged toward Halcyon striking down on him with Aka-Hana, he brought up his staff blocking the strike with ease.

That second Van circled round him and attacked from behind darting toward Halcyons back with his blade poised horizontally to strike, Halcyon glanced over his shoulder and briefly looked panicked. _Looks like I'm gonna have to use this after all. _As Van closed in Halcyon remained locked in combat with Haze but also turned round and blocked Vans attack knocking him away, the two Halcyons split from each other as the first Halcyon pushed Haze away and the two identical navy captains stood back to back.

"What the..?" Van and Haze growled to themselves at the same time. The Halcyons began to speak simultaneously.

"I ate the Fuku-Fuku no mi. It's a devil fruit that allows me to duplicate myself." The two Halcyons stopped at the same time aswell, it was as though they were controlled by a singular brain.

The two Halcyons charged at their respective opponents. Haze and Van blocked at the same time, both of them blocking and attacking their version of the enemy captain.

Haze blocked halcyons incoming overhead slash as the pole connected with her guard she had a sudden flashback of her brief encounter the week before she glowed yellow, "Kiiro. Not this time." She said as Halcyons five point Naginata split into individual segments wrapping over Hazes guard "Bakushin!" Haze yelled as she disappeared into a yellow blur circling round behind him slashing diagonally toward his back, the attack sliced the top of his shoulder as he attempted to dodge the attack.

At the same time Van carefully made sure he blocked Halcyons overhead attack only on the blade of the naginata as it was the only part of the weapon not made of kairouseki. Van felt the pressure of Halcyon pushing down on his guard the leverage he had made it impossible to hold the guard for long, _Shit. _Van thought to himself but then smiled, he let his legs buckle forcing him to slide down to the ground. Halcyons attack continued to push down on him sliding him along the floor on his back through Halcyons legs as the naginata blade connected with the floor Mik's eyes glowed and a flame pulsed from his mouth along the blade pushing Van back up onto his feet, as he rose he kept the blade up above his head slicing up along his Halcyons spine.

"Got me." The two Halcyons growled at the same time, "But don't get too ahead of yourselves." he continued as the two men turned to dust and gathered together to form a singular unharmed Halcyon once more. The marine captain readied himself for another attack, as he pushed off he split back into two forms charging both of the pirates as the two Halcyons attacked they each split again resulting in four exact copies of him.

As Halcyon's attack came towards haze the other Halcyon darted behind her spinning round swinging the naginata blade toward her back, she kicked toward the frontal attack blocking Halcyon's strike by stopping his arm with her foot while swinging the sword behind her stopping the other attack. She pushed off the floor with her free leg somersaulting over the Halcyon behind her while kicking the one in front in the face sending him flying backward but landing on his feet. Now the two were lined up she could finish it in one strike. "Kiiro, Bakushin!" The yellow blur passed by both Halcyons in less than a second and identical slashes appeared from shoulder to shoulder on each as they fell backwards hitting the floor with a thud.

Van's eyes widened as Halcyon split, one remained in front of him and the other darted behind him, as the two attempted to attack him, Van noticed something odd, these opponents weren't like the Halcyon he had faced before, they were much slower but there were more of them which was a real pain. Van sat down as the two attacks closed in pointing Mik forward as the dragon let out another pulse of fire propelling Van backwards along the floor under the Halcyon jumping toward him from behind. He rolled backwards onto his feet as the two Halcyons struck each other, they turned to face him, like Hazes version they had moved into a convenient line, Van grinned. "Dragon Fang." He yelled slashing vertically toward the two captains as he did a blade of fire flew toward them, they didn't have time to move it hit both of them in the same place, on their left side cutting clean through the shoulder. They hit the floor at the same time as the two Haze was facing and all four turned to dust reforming back into one person.

This time however Halcyon was not uninjured, there was a square hole clean through his left shoulder, he grabbed it in pain, shocked by his wound.

"We know your weaknesses now navy boy. You can only remain uninjured if the wound isn't in the same place on all of your copies." Haze said smiling confidently.

"And your power is shared between your copies, which means the more you copy yourself the weaker each copy becomes. It's over old man." Van continued also smiling broadly.

Halcyon stood with a look of stunned awe on his face. _How could they figure it out so quickly? _He recomposed himself, spinning his naginata in his right hand. "Looks like I'm going to have to put my all into this." He grunted as he looked up toward the two pirates, he split into eight, all spinning their weapon in their right hand they charged.

(--)

"Shigan! Shigan! Shigan" The quick succession of attacks knocked Ayanne in all directions, as they came from all over, Shaw's ability to teleport was really beginner to annoy Ayanne now. Shaw appeared right in front of her, "Rankyaku." He said calmly as he kicked Ayanne in her stomach, the attack was so strong it almost felt as though the carbon would break but it held up sending Ayanne flying backwards into a wall. As the attack hit, Shaw closed his eyes, listening out carefully. He opened them happily when he heard Ayanne rattle around inside her armour as she slammed against the wall.

"It's over Miss Pirate." He said as he smiled at Ayanne while she clambered back to her feet.

"Your right, it is. This time your mine!" She yelled angrily, turning her forearm into a huge blade. Ayanne dashed toward him but when she closed in on him he teleported right next to her she quickly grabbed his arm the moment he appeared, "Gotcha!" She yelled as she grasped firmly round his wrist and swung toward him with her blade arm, Shaw looked her in the eyes and smiled placing his hand against the armours chest and closing his eyes. Just before the blade made contact with Shaw, Ayanne was shocked to see it turn back to her hand completely unprotected, in fact all of her armour had disappeared she looked over her shoulder in shock as she saw Shaw slamming her suit of carbon into the floor. _What just happened? Did he just… teleport the armour from round me? _She didn't have a chance to think anything else as Shaw turned and appeared right behind her.

"Shi…" Shaw began, bringing his hand back ready.

"~Boom!~" Loca sang with a giggle. Shaw's eyes widened as he glanced to his left to see Loca stood by half a dozen black and white fireworks. *Boom* the fireworks shot toward him, he had no time to do anything. They exploded into a wave of black and white gunk which plastered Shaw to the wall on the opposite side of the room. He struggled for a moment but the substance quickly set solid securing him in place, unable to move and unable to teleport.

"~Gotcha.~" Loca sang joyfully as she spun round on one roller blade.

Ayanne landed sliding along the floor from her momentum. "Took your time where were you?" She asked turning to look at Loca who stopped dancing and looked slightly guilty.

She quickly hid it by saying, "I had to set up all the fireworks and wait for him to get into the right place. You're lucky I saved you at all." She said unable to hide her excited smile. Ayanne grinned back happily.

"Thanks." She said sticking her thumb up. "Now lets get this stuff loaded onto the ship quickly before more marines show up." Loca slowly walked toward Shaw with a match and an evil look on her face. As she got closer a smile spread across her lips, she put the match toward the highly flammable casing Shaw was trapped in his eyes got wider as the match closed in. Loca leant forward and blew out the match then looked up at him with a big grin.

"~Saved ya life~" She sang before excitedly running back toward Ayanne. The two girls set about loading the treasure and supplies onto the ship.

(--)

Back with Haze and Van, the two pirates were now fighting off eight Halcyons each, despite them being much weaker, Halcyon was incredibly strong to begin with so they still weren't easy to hold off, Van and Haze ducked and dived, under and over attacks coming from all directions but every time they retaliated the injured Halcyon would combine with another nearby and split back into two uninjured men, apart from the damage they had managed to cause him before.

"Switch!" Haze yelled to Van who looked up and smiled in confirmation. The two pirates darted past each other toward the others group of Halcyons striking through them in one blow, the two crowds turned back into which flowed across the floor like water regrouping back into one man. He had gained another cut along his chest from where all the attacks crossed over, but it was only a small shallow gash. Despite the wound being nothing serious Halcyon was obviously fatigued, sweat dripped down his face and he clutched his shoulder, wincing in pain. Haze and Van weren't much better, sweat had soaked their clothes along with the blood from several small cuts from attacks that weren't dodged fast enough.

"Time to end this." Halcyon growled as he gasped for air. He jumped back splitting into four then three of them placed their hands under the fourth's feet as he landed then hurled him into the air. As he ascended the other three turned to dust and rose after him rejoining his body. Once Halcyon reached about fifty foot in the air he began to descend back to earth positioning his naginata under his arm like a lance, he accelerated with incredible speed toward the ground. Van and Haze tightened the grip on the blades.

"Ready captain?" Haze asked as she watched Halcyon split a hundred times the sky was blacked out by the army of Halcyons falling to earth.

"We have to put everything into this one." Van replied with a smile.

"Wrath of Heaven!" The Halcyons shouted as they fell with a combined sound that could be heard from islands over twenty miles away.

As the mass of Halcyons closed in at incredible speed. The two pirates drew back their katana, not taking their eyes of the sky for a second.

"Three..Two..One" Haze and Van counted down in unison.

"Momoiro." Haze whispered, she began to glow pink.

The Halcyons were about twenty five foot away.

"Dragon Fang!" "Sakura!" The pirates shouted as they unleashed their attacks simultaneously into the incoming waves of people, a pink mass of sakura petal shaped energy fragments formed a giant blade alongside the giant blade of flame from Mik's dragon fang attack the two attacks ripped through the innumerable Halcyons and off into the sky. Haze and Van covered their faces as a torrent of dust flooded around them before collecting together back into captain Halcyon's singular form. He panted as blood ran down his mouth smiled as he staggered back into the wall with a cough he dropped down into a seated position. There were no new wounds visible on the outside but the last attacks had caused him serious internal injury.

A smile spread across Halcyon's mouth. "That's what I wanted to see. I knew you had it in you." He laughed to himself but spluttered out a cough as more blood erupted out of his mouth. Van stood over him with Mik pointed toward his throat, Van's hand shook as he decided what to do. "Do it kid. If you won't kill to save your nakama, you don't deserve them." Haze put her hand on Van's shoulder he glanced back toward her then smiled. Mik turned back into a dragon and rushed along Van's arm and curling up on his shoulder.

Van looked down at Halcyon and grinned broadly in his usual fashion. "I don't need to kill people to save my nakama. I'm just that damn good." He laughed loudly as he turned and walked away with Haze.

(--)

It had taken Haze and Van almost no time to fight their way to the vault. The guards were spread pretty thin due to breakouts all over the prison, apparently the prisoners had gotten hold of a set of cell keys which quickly made its way round the entire prison. Ayanne and Loca readied themselves as they heard the footsteps approaching the vault door but were relieved to see Haze and Van appear through.

"Where have you been? We have been waiting here ages." Ayanne said feigning annoyance then smiling.

Van grinned and ran past up onto the ship quickly followed by the rest of the crew.

"By the way Haze this is Loca. She is a firework expert!" Van said excited just saying it even now. Haze smiled welcomingly to her new nakama, Loca couldn't help smiling back. "Well what are we waiting for. Lets get the hell outta here!" He yelled again. Ayanne laughed and released the boat from the impound before jumping back aboard. The other three lowed the sails and prepared the boat for launch. Moments later they were back out to sea. Free once again.

(--)

A few hours later back in the courtyard of Croften Vale marine prison, Halcyon still sat, badly injured but Ok. The wound wasn't enough to kill him. He looked up to see a dark figure standing in the distance.

"Hello Captain Halcyon. So nice to finally meet you." The man said before slowly coming into the light, he was tall and gaunt with orange hair and brown eyes. The light on his face made him look almost dead due to his pale complexion. He wore a plain _white_ T-shirt, sandals and quite striking green and white chequered pants.

"I came here looking for a certain girl. I have been ordered by the world government to deal with her. But I get here and find that you have let her and her associates escape. This just won't do captain Halcyon. Won't do at all. You have made my job difficult for me and for that I will make you pay." The entire time he spoke the man fidgeted with his hands.

Halcyon rose from his seated position, using his naginata to stable himself, "Oh I do apologise mister… um…?"

"Coral."

"Mister Coral."

"No, just Coral."

"I see. Well I am very sorry but if you think you can take me on. You just go ahead and try."

"Oh There won't be any trying about it." Coral chuckled to himself as Halcyon prepared to attack. "You see. You have already lost."

Halcyon lunged at him full force, "Stop." Coral whispered softly, Halcyon stopped in his tracks, unable to move any part of his body.

Coral calmly looked at Halcyon, "Now if you would give me that please." Halcyon handed over his naginata. A look of fear on his face.

"Thank you." Coral said still completely calm as he took the weapon. He grinned evilly before plunging the naginata through Halcyon's chest.

"Hold this would you." Halcyon tried to resist but couldn't. He lifted his arms and held the weapon in place. Blood spilling uncontrollably from his mouth. He watched Coral turn and walk away laughing psychotically as his vision faded into darkness.

* * *

**A/N:** Well hope you enjoyed it. Had a bit of writers block half way through but i got over it. Hopefully it's ok. Let me know by reviewing. Thanks for reading. It's like 4:50 am at the moment so I'm going to bed =)

ShX


	10. Chapter 9 One Mean Chef

**A/N:** Sorry guys and girls I have been uber busy of late, plus I've been really ill over the past three months so I haven't really had time to write. It's a fairly long one but I know that doesn't excuse me from not updating sooner. The next one should be much quicker.

* * *

Somewhere in East Blue the silver dragon head ship drifted along the calm waters under the peaceful midday sun.

"I'm booooooorrrrrrrreeeeeed!" Van yelled as the crew sat in the kitchen cabin round the new table which had been quickly fashioned by Ayanne during their escape from the marine jail.

"Nobody cares, besides it's been about 2 minutes since we started talking about this. This is important." Ayanne hadn't hit Van since they had left the jail because the pile of treasure they swiped had mellowed her a bit, however she was drawing ever closer to hitting him with a chair.

"But I wanna do something fuuuuuuuun." He whined. Ayanne's eye twitched slightly as she tried to remain calm.

"Well we still don't have a name for our crew, how will anyone recognise us if we don't have a memorable title." Haze said calmly trying to defuse the situation quickly.

"The table pirates." Van said deciding that Haze had a point.

"No, what kind of name is that." Ayanne replied sharply.

"The Lamp Pirates."

"No."

"The Sink Pirates."

"NO!"

"The Chair pirates."

"Stop trying to name us after things in this room!"

"Your mean."

"We need a name that will be taken seriously. No-one is afraid of chairs." Ayanne said grinding her teeth. The anger boiled up inside her and her green eyes flared with rage.

"The Spoon Pirates?" *BANG* A carbon fist collided with Van's face with a crack sending him flying through the open doorway and skidding across the deck. Van didn't get back up, he just lay on the floor twitching slightly.

Haze and Loca slowly peered round the doorway at Van then shook their heads and resumed the discussion.

"Hmmm what about… No that's no good." Haze said shaking her head.

"We could, no never mind." Loca was also struggling.

Ten minutes passed by and no-one could think of a suitable name a few suggestions had been batted about but they were either already taken or a bit too weird.

"Erm is he gonna be Ok?" Loca eventually asked, pointing at Van who was outside and still not moving.

"He's fine but we still need a name." Ayanne replied bluntly.

Outside Mik had decided to check his friend was still alive as he had finished his nap and had very little else to do. He slowly waddled over to Van who lay motionless on the floor. The small dragon extended a claw and lightly poked him in the head, Van let out a long yawn and opened his eyes to see the dragon standing over him.

As Van lay on the floor staring at the sky he suddenly felt his stomach let out an almighty growl, he rubbed it thoughtfully then a bird flying high overhead caught his eye. _'Mmm Roast duck' _He thought licking his lips. He took in a large breath then slammed his mouth shut before blowing a fireball straight at the unaware poultry.

At the last second the bird darted out of the way as it noticed the incoming fiery projectile, in its panic it dropped the large sack of papers it was carrying. The bag plummeted down land on Vans head with a thud.

"How about the Dragon Tongue pirates." He said as he walked toward the kitchen rubbing the lump on his forehead.

"Shut up Van!" Ayanne yelled flinging a plate at his head knocking him out again. "Wait, what was that? That was pretty good. What do you think guys?"

Loca and Haze nodded in agreement, it was far better than anything they had been able to come up with.

"Then it's decided from this point on" she walked over to the entrance of the kitchen "we are The Dragon Tongue Pirates."

"Aye!" Loca and Haze cheered in unison followed weekly by Van outside.

Van staggered through the doorway carrying a pile of papers. Loca looked at him suspiciously.

"How did you think of that name? You were talking about lamps a second ago. Did Ayanne hit you that hard?" She said laughing slightly at Van's misshapen head.

"I got the idea from these."

He placed the pile on the table then spread them out so the entire surface was covered. The crew stared in amazement at all the bounties on offer for the various pirates. Ayanne sifted through the heaps of paper noting any sizable bounties for future reference she removed three from the pile and put them side by side at the top of the table.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE:

'Dragon Tongue' Van Niko

40,000,000 beri

The picture on the top was Van with his hands ablaze mid-attack.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE:

'The Titan' Ayanne

29,000,000 beri

Ayanne's picture was of her in her carbon armour holding a marine off the floor by his face.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE:

'Rocket Song' Poca Loca

27,000,000 beri

At the top of the page was Loca pointing her mini-launchers Noir and Blanc either side of her.

The three pirates cheered as they saw their bounties, they were finally pirates with decent bounties, they wee even higher than some of the other rewards on the wanted posters for pirates who had been going for a much longer time than themselves.

Haze looked disappointedly at the three posters at the end of the table. "Don't I have one?" she asked looking up at Ayanne, obviously upset that the others had bounties and she didn't.

"Sorry Haze I couldn't find one." Ayanne said trying to calm herself down for the sake of her crewmates feelings.

"Oh wait there's another poster in here." Van said reaching into the bag and pulling out another poster. At the top of the poster was a picture of Haze with Aka-Hana drawn and pink sakura petal energy flowing round her.

WANTED ALIVE:

'Rainbow Blade' Haze

100,000,000 beri

Van placed the poster with the other three at the top of the table and the four pirates stared in amazement at Haze's bounty.

"One hundred million beri. That's a lot." Van said staring in awe at the piece of paper.

"Why does mine only say alive." Haze asked uncomfortably.

"I was wondering the same thing. What exactly is it they want with you." Ayanne mumbled staring at the poster in deep thought.

"I don't know. Gaaah I wish I could remember." She rubbed her head trying to think back, a sharp pain hit her head like a bat, she yelped in pain nearly falling back off her chair.

"It's no use.. I can't…"

"It's Ok." Van said smiling as he put his hand on Hazes shoulder to comfort her. "It doesn't matter why they're after you. The important thing is that we won't let them have you." Haze looked up at Van and smiled back.

"Glad we have an understanding." Van walked out onto the deck and yawned. "Aah I'm Boooored."

Ayanne lunged from her seat out the doorway tackling Van the crashes and thuds could be heard inside, it sounded painful. A few seconds later Ayanne strolled back in, patting her hands together to get the dust off. Van lay outside in a crumpled heap mumbling to himself slightly.

"So where to next miss navigator." Ayanne asked.

"Well I checked the map and the Baratie is fairly close. We will have to stop off at this island first." She said pointing at an island on the map called Baiten Island . At hearing this Van shot back up onto his feet and ran excitedly into the kitchen.

"AWESOME! They are meant to be the best Chefs in the world." He said drooling at the mere thought of it.

"We have to get supplies first so don't get too excited just yet." Ayanne interrupted. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have treasure to value." She left the kitchen humming to herself happily.

"That's like the sixth time today." Loca said rolling her eyes.

(--)

Seven hours later the crew docked their ship in the port of Baiten Island, the sails rippled in the wind. The black sails were now adorned with a jolly roger which had a dragons skull instead of a standard one the skull was smiling with its tongue hanging out and flames leaking out the sides of its mouth. The Dragon Tongue pirates dropped anchor and disembarked onto the land.

The portside city was bustling with people, the crowds were flocking between shops and market stalls of every kind. The crew stared in awe at the mass of businesses and neon signs, they would definitely be able get the supplies they needed in this place.

"I'll stay here and guard the ship with Mik." Ayanne said looking at the crowds of people in suspicion. "It will give me a chance to finalise the repairs. Take what's left of our money with you, we will exchange the treasure we swiped later when it quietens down. Van you need new clothes." She said looking at Van's navy attire. "Haze and Loca stay with him, make sure he doesn't buy anything stupid."

"Oi! I'm the captain. I'll buy whatever the hell I want." Van shouted pointing at himself with his thumb.

"Sorry. Of course you can captain. Just don't cause any trouble." Ayanne complied happily. As Van turned away she handed the money to Haze and leaned in to whisper. "Don't let him buy anything." Haze nodded in agreement then turned and caught up with Loca and Van.

"I wanna buy a monkey!" Ayanne heard Van shout as he disappeared into the crowd. She shook her head and turned her attention to the ship. '_Please don't do anything stupid._'

"Right first things first captain. We need to get you some new clothes." Loca suggested pointing at a large clothing store.

"Aww, but I want a monkey." Van argued slumping his shoulders.

"We can get one after." Haze suggested, praying they wouldn't find somewhere that sold monkeys.

"Okay I guess that's fair." Van said before entering the store.

They came out about an hour later and Van was no longer wearing the marine attire he had on previously. He wore black sandals with baggy dark green cargo shorts which gathered round his legs just below his knees and had several large zip pockets. Instead of a belt Van had a thick red rope tied round the top of his shorts with the knot and excess rope hanging from the left side of his waste. Two silver circular bells each about the size of an apple were attached to the rope hanging on the right side of his waste and jingled quietly as he walked. He wore a black zipper jacket which was left open with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the back of the jacket had the crews new jolly roger stitched onto it, he still wore his usual black and white chequered scarf round his neck.

"Man this is much better those marines sure have some uncomfortable clothes. Maybe that's why they are so grumpy all the time." Van stretched in relief as he spoke.

"Can we get some navigation supplies." Haze asked hopefully.

"Sure we got plenty left and we can spend all this 'cause we're cashing in all that treasure later." Van said as they searched the streets for the next shop to go in.

"That place looks like a navigation shop." Loca said pointing at a store with a large compass on top of it.

"Yeah looks like it." Haze replied smiling and running inside. The other two followed. "'tevenknowwheretostart."

"Huh?" Van and Loca said both looking confused.

"Sorry it's just. There'ssomuchstuff." Haze turned and started grabbing drawing equipment and map paper, a telescope a new compass and other essentials. She was like a kid in a candy shop.

When they left the shop Haze was carrying several bags and had a huge grin on her face. "I better take this stuff to the ship." She leaned over to Loca and handed her the remaining money. "Don't let Van buy anything too stupid." she whispered as she handed it over. "I've kept some of the money. I'll buy food stock on the way back." She said as she walked away looking at her new toys excitedly.

"I need some supplies aswell." Loca said to Van whose face lit up.

"Firework shop? Awesome!" Van through his arms into the air in celebration as the two remaining pirates shot down the street looking for a suitable store.

They eventually stopped and entered a shop called 'Shui's Firework Factory'. An old Chinese man stood behind the desk smiling politely.

"Shui's Firework factory, for all the fireworks you could ever want." The old man said. He was a very short man, no more than five feet tall.

"Hey, I don't need any fireworks. Just some supplies to make them." While Loca talked to the man at the counter Van walked wide eyed round the store in amazement, he'd never seen so many fireworks.

"Sure thing. Also fellow makers get a forty percent discount." He slammed a large sack of gun powder onto the countertop. As he did a small amount of excess gun powder bellowed out the top and drifted round the shop. It eventually reached Van who breathed it in his nose without noticing.

"Achoo!" As he sneezed a small ball of fire the size of a golf ball flew out of Van's mouth and ignited one of the many fireworks fuses.

"I need some cylindrical cases and cone heads aswell." Loca added and the old man smiled before going into backroom. While the two firework makers continued to do business Van desperately tried to put out the fireworks fuse. Blowing on it wasn't working. And stopping it with his fingers wasn't working. He looked round in desperation and spotted a glass of water on the counter he was about to grab it when a hand picked it up. The old shop owner drank it as he returned with the supplies Loca had requested.

"There you go, keep the change." Loca said as she handed over a handful of beri to the man. Van followed her out looking nervously back at the ever-shrinking fuse. Upon leaving the store Loca decided to head back to the ship. Going round with a bag of gun powder wasn't the smartest of ideas.

She handed over the remaining cash to Van. Luckily there wasn't enough left to buy anything seriously stupid so she didn't have to worry. The two went in opposite directions, Loca skated toward the docks and Van went in search of some food.

Van glanced at restaurant after restaurant while he walked through the food district, he drooled uncontrollably at the smell. *BOOM!* a large explosion echoed behind him he spun round to see what had happened, in the distance thousands of fireworks exploded in the sky above a mushroom cloud. Van narrowed his eye to focus on an object he saw fly out from the smoke and into the sky arcing through the air before bouncing to a stop in front of him. In the small crater sat the old Chinese man, he was blackened and still smouldering with a dazed look on his face.

Van quickly darted into the closest restaurant to hide from him, he didn't want to get blamed for the accident. As he rushed through the doors he was hit by the most extraordinary smells he had ever experienced. He drifted through the air following his nose and sat down on a stool at the bar.

"What can I get ya?" The barman asked, laying a menu down in front of Van.

"One of everything!" Van replied slamming the remaining money on the counter.

"Coming right up." The barman quickly grabbed the money before Van could change his mind.

A few minutes later he came out of the kitchen with stacks of food, he carefully brought them over to Van laying them down in front of him. The whole restaurant stared in amazement as Van demolished it all in an inhumanly quick time.

"Hey who made this food it's incredible!"

"Our chef. He is easily the best one on the entire island." The barman replied gesturing to the kitchen behind him.

Van hopped over the bar and through the doorway into the kitchen. The chef stood over the grill cooking one of his many orders, he was 5'9 with longish black hair which was parted down the centre and tucked behind his ears, he wore cream coloured cargo shorts with a black belt, a vibrant red a yellow Hawaiian shirt and white shoes with no socks. His eyes were black and glanced in Van's direction, as he noticed van his expression became one of annoyance and the whites of his eyes also turned black. He extended an open hand in toward van.

"Void Bolt." A strange black semi-solid substance shot out of his palm in a raindrop shape and hit Van in the chest, it was like being hit by a hammer. Van flew backwards out of the kitchen and through the bar slamming into the wall next to the restaurants entrance.

The black haired chef stepped out of the kitchen cracking his knuckles. "No-one enters my kitchen without permission." he said staring coldly at Van with his entirely black eyes.

Van put his fist to the floor to help himself up with his head down, he suddenly looked up with a fiery grin on his face. Van unleashed a large fireball toward the chef who was caught by surprise as people rarely shot fire in a fight. The fireball collided with him just as he started to surround himself with the strange black substance. He was catapulted backward smashing through the wall next to the entrance of the kitchen. Van stood up brushing himself off looking at the chef shaped hole in the wall. Several void bolts shot out from the cloud of dust punching holes in the concrete wall behind Van as he dodged them.

"What are you doing to my restaurant?!" The barman cried as he watched the destruction of his business.

The chef stepped through the hole in the wall. Hovering slightly above his hands were balls of the strange black substance, the chef clenched his fists and as he did the black substance mimicked his fist. "Void Shock." He punched forward as he spoke sending the black fist rocketing toward Van with incredible speed slamming him through the wall and into the street. Van slowly rose back to his feet rubbing the bruise on his chest staring at the chef, who had now also stepped out into the street still with the two void fists floating around his hands. Van darted at him unleashing a torrent of punches, all of them were easily dodged before he returned the gesture quickly knocking Van back with a single void shock to the chest forcing him down the street narrowly missing a crowd of bystanders. Van eventually staggered back to his feet now looking more serious than before.

"Hehe, this is great. I've been looking for a decent opponent." Van said grinning as fire flowing from between his teeth.

He blew a ball of fire onto each then used Haki to keep them there. "Let's kick it up a notch. Before we start this, what's your name?"

"My name is Naye Asaxe and you're going to pay for disrespecting a man's kitchen." The chef replied without breaking eye contact with Van.

"Well it isn't your kitchen anymore, so when we are done you can join my crew." Van chuckled smiling broadly. Naye looked across at his wrecked workplace and his eyes turned entirely black once again.

Van darted toward Naye dodging the black void fists which slammed into the floor just behind him he sped up as he closed the gap between him and his opponent, the bells on his waste jingled loudly as he moved.

"Void Wave." A wave of the black void substance shot toward Van who blasted a ball of fire into the floor which sent him in an arc over the incoming attack and down toward Naye.

"Honoo Teken!" Van's fiery punch connected with Naye's chest propelling him down the street on his back, before he slowed to a stop Naye flipped onto his feet looking angrily at Van. He hadn't expected his attack to be avoided so he didn't have time to protect himself.

'_This guy's getting annoying_' He thought as he created eight larger fists which formed an semi-circle over his head '_Time to end it_.' Van was impressed by his opponents display.

'_Maybe now would be a good time to try this out._' Van thought as he placed his two fists to the floor in a crouched position. "O-" Van didn't get a chance to finish as a gunshot narrowly missed his head. "What the?" He looked behind to see a large squad of marines running toward them.

"You two are under arrest!" One of the incoming marines shouted.

"Haha looks like your going to.. Wait two?" Naye looked toward the marines just in time to see a bullet get fired in his direction. "Void shield." a large piece of void appeared in front of him ricocheting the bullet back at the marine who fired it.

"See ya!" Van shouted as he darted passed Naye and toward the docks.

"You're running away?" Naye growled.

"Sorry I promised someone I wouldn't get into trouble." Van disappeared down the hill but Naye could still here the bells in the distance.

"Don't think I'm letting you off that easy." Naye shouted as he hurled the void shield at the marines and pursued Van.

(--)

When Naye reached the dock Van had already boarded the ship and the Dragon Tongue pirates were nearly ready to leave. He glanced behind him to see hundreds of marines surrounding the docks all pointing their rifles toward him and the dragon head pirate ship. He turned to face them but quickly realised there were too many for him to take on, with that many guns someone was guaranteed at least one hit. Naye stared at his predicament unable to comprehend any means of escape.

"Fire!" The voice came from behind him. He looked up to see Van standing on the ships railing pointing toward the marines.

"Aye!" A purple haired girl Naye hadn't seen before stood next to him with a huge revolver over her shoulder. "Senkou Rocketto." A white and yellow rocket flew into the sky and exploded. The explosion was followed by a bright light which left Naye and the marines blinded, he felt a chain wrap round his chest then a sharp tug hoisting him up onto a wooden surface. He remained blinded for several minutes, so he just sat listening to what was happening around him.

"Haze give us a boost." He heard Van yell.

"Aye!" Hazes voice replied.

"I thought I told you no trouble. We didn't even get a chance to sell our treasure." *SMACK*

"Ow. It wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything."

"Okay we're clear." Loca's voice came from the portside of the ship.

"See Ayanne it's fine. Plus I also found us a chef. His food is the best I've ever had."

The world slowly came back into focus and Naye glanced round at the faces staring down at him.

"Welcome to the crew." Ayanne said pulling him to his feet.

"Nicetomeetyou." Haze bowed her head slightly.

"Hey newbie" Loca patted him on the shoulder as she skated past him.

He looked at Van in bewilderment.

Van grinned. "Are you in?"

* * *

**A/N:** Well hope it was kinda worth the wait. A new crew member has joined our merry ranks thank you CaptainNaye for Naye Asaxe my much needed chef. Just missing a doctor now *HINT HINT* which brings me nicely onto this, please keep submitting your awesome characters and can you say whether you mind them being an enemy or not as it saves me time on finding out. Thanks guys.

ShX

**P.S:** I created a wanted poster for Van to give you an idea what he looks like which is here: .com/art/One-Piece-OC-Poster-145242474 check it out if you want and also if there are any other crew members you think i should do this for just let me know in the reviews.


	11. Chapter 10 Strange Island part 1

**Chapter 10.  
**

**Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.**

* * *

The moon hung low in the sky over the small Kikai Island. The Dragon Tongue pirates ship was neatly hidden in a rocky cove on the uninhabited side of the island bobbing slowly up and down with the current but the crew were nowhere to be seen.

"I'm bored! Why did we have to stop so far away." Vans whining echoed through the dense forest that separated their boat from the islands main town Seijou Village.

"This town is renowned for it's high marine presence because it kept getting raided by pirates. So leaving a pirate ship packed with treasure is just asking for trouble. " Haze was half asleep because she had to navigate them through the rocky shore which meant she had gotten no sleep.

"Why didn't we go to the Baratie?" Mik rose his head momentarily before going back to sleep on Van's shoulder.

"Because someone got us chased off the last island before we could cash in our treasure." Ayanne was walking in her armour as it gave her a much larger stride and therefore required less effort.

"Yeah but I got us a new chef."

"I'm not your chef. I'm staying on this island when you leave."

Van chose to ignore the reply and walked on happily, every so often one of the crew would take down a freakishly large and quite angry looking animal, which the island was also famous for. This time it was a squirrel which was bigger than a full grown man, it snarled through its long pointed teeth before lunging at them, it's red eyes glowing madly in the moonlight. Haze quickly unsheathed Aka-hana splitting the rodent down the middle.

She slowly put away her blade checking to make sure there were no more incoming 'predators' "What is it with this place. The giant evil turtle I could deal with, we would have died of old age before he got us. But these forest creatures are just to much."

"Mnm Vut 'ey taste bretty goot." Van was happily munching on a squirrel leg he had just flamed, he had taken it upon himself to try out everything they killed on the way. "The cow was better though." He flung the bone over his shoulder adding to the trail of bones behind them.

Ayanne dropped out of her armour as it turned to dust around her. "Finally."

There were only a few lights on in Seijou Village, the general populous would still be sound asleep, which gave the pirates an excellent chance to enter the village without attracting any unwanted attention. They slowly ambled through the streets looking for somewhere to stay until morning aswell as somewhere to trade their treasure for cash.

"This place is pretty big for a village isn't it?" Loca stared at the maze like system of streets and alleyways in amazement.

"Yeah and where is this high marine presence we walked miles to avoid?" Naye added looking round the empty streets.

The crew then headed into a nearby bar as it was one of the few places that had any lights on at that time in the morning the other options were questionable in both taste and morality.

"Man I hope they do food I'm starving." The rest of the crew stopped and stared at Van the question of how he could still be hungry was apparent on all their faces.

The building they entered was a bar and inn decorated traditionally with signs, beer barrels and wooden panels everywhere. The barman cowered behind the bar only the top of his head was visible, the glasses on the bar rattled from his fear invoked shaking.

"Wh-who is it? I-I don-t want any trouble apapa." His voice trembled as he spoke.

"We are just travellers looking for a place to stay." Haze said attempting to peer over the bar from where she was stood.

"And food." Van whispered.

"Oh and food." Haze added.

The barman leapt from his position behind the bar with a broad smile on his face. "Apapa why didn't you say so sooner."

"We only just got here." Loca commented.

"Five is it?" He continued ignoring her completely.

"Why were you hiding when we came in?" Naye asked inquisitively.

"Apapa you can't be to careful with pirates around." the crew shifted uncomfortably.

"Pirates?"

"Yeah those Dragon Tongues are in this area at the moment. You haven't seen them nearby have you?" He said starting to edge back behind his bar after scaring himself. "Apapapapapa *Gulp*"

"Well actually Oof!" Ayanne elbowed Naye in the ribs before he could continue.

"No, just us here Ossan. I don't think the Dragon Tongue Pirates would attack a place with so many marines." She interrupted.

"Yeah maybe you could let them know that, the have raided us five times already."

"What?"

"They have already attacked us five times. We are really suffering financially."

"It can't be the Dragon tongue pirates." Ayanne said matter of factly.

"Well that's what I heard apapapa."

"So what do we owe you?" Loca asked.

"Five hundred million beri."

"WHAT!?" Ayanne shouted her face instantly turning angry.

"Sorry I meant one thousand apapa."

"That's not even close!" The crew shouted in unison once again, even Naye joined in this time.

The crew sat at a table and ordered food and Naye followed the barman to the kitchen to watch and help with the cooking, twenty minutes later the two chefs appeared carrying a vast quantity of food.

"It's on the house your friend here gave me some excellent cooking tips. They more than cover the cost of the meal," He said smiling broadly, putting the plates of steaming food on the table. Naye sat down with the rest of them watching there reaction.

"WOW!" Van said firing bits of food across the table when he spoke forcing Haze and Loca to dodge the projectiles. "This is amazing." Naye casually hid his smile behind his hand then glared at Loca who had noticed him do it.

Several hours later the crew were bloated and the food was gone they sat laughing and drinking, pulling faces and generally having a good time. Within the next hour they were all in their rooms fast asleep exhausted from food excitement and alcohol. Even Haze who had originally refused alcohol was flushed in a drunken state by the end of the night. Loca was curled up on the floor a few yards from her bed as that was as far as she could make it. Ayanne had gone to bed fully armoured except the armour had been given a silly face with random words engraved into it. Van was asleep standing up just in the doorway to his room with Mik curled up on top of his head. Haze slept float a couple feet above her bed surrounded with a yellow glow. Naye was used to drinking large quantities so he was the least drunk of the lot and was able to make a bed of void next to the one in his room as it was far more comfortable.

The following morning Van was still in his vertical sleeping position, slowly swaying backward and forward with each breath until he eventually tilted too far backwards and tumbled over with a thud sending Mik rolling backward along the floor. Van rubbed his eyes and stood back up turning round to see Mik stood on his hind legs shaking one clawed fist at Van while rubbing his head with the other.

"Sorry buddy." Van offered the dragon a hand which was promptly scurried up so he could return to his usual sleeping position on Vans shoulder.

Van staggered unsteadily downstairs, the rest of the crew had long been awake and only Naye and Loca were still in the bar. Loca sat cradling a severe hang over while Naye happily sipped a cocktail of some sort from a coconut shell.

"About time you woke up. I've been here waiting for you. I have to go look for a job but Ayanne demanded I stay and wait for you to wake up to let you know her and Haze have gone to fetch the ship." Naye put his drink on the bar and stood up.

"Loca could have told me."

"Oh really? Loca what did Ayanne say to tell Van?"

"Stop talking! I think hammer wielding imps have invaded my brain." She mumbled before slouching over the bar with her hands over her head.

"You can't be hung over, your ~Poca Loca~." Van encouraged cheerily.

"~From the I-island o-o-of … please go away… Quietly!" Van looked surprised for a moment before turning to Naye.

"Well I have nothing better to do so I'll come help you find a job."

"Greeaaat…" Naye replied sarcastically walking out the front door with Van just behind him.

The two pirates ambled casually through the town, Naye stared at the jolly roger shaped patch on Vans back where Ayanne had made him remove the crews emblem from his jacket as it would cause to much trouble for them. '_Good job_' He thought to himself '_these people seem awfully skittish about pirates._'

"What about there?" Van said pointing at a large store with a red and white spiralled pole outside.

"That's a hair stylists. Why would I get a job there? He replied shaking his head.

"There?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's a brothel."

"Oh. Well what about that place?"

"Pet groomers."

"Eeeerrrrm that place."

"Ah now we're talking. Looks like a nice restaurant. 'Chef Wanted.' Excellent." He happily pushed open the saloon style swinging doors and entered rubbing his hands together. Van joined him, maybe he would get some sort of complementary meal.

Naye walked over to the reception counter which was deserted, in fact the entire restaurant was empty. He rang the service bell a couple times and waited patiently. The sound of plates cluttering and shuffling came from the kitchen area, a very short man ran out carrying a three foot ladder hurriedly running over to the counter set up his ladder and climbed until he was at head height with Naye.

"…How may I help…You sir…Table for two?" The tiny man panted, he was a balding man with a single patch of hair which was styled into a curl on his head, on his top lip was a thin mustache which reached his rosy cheeks on either side of his face in a spiral.

"Hi… I erm saw your job offer in the window and I…"

"Oh my is that still there? I meant to take that down. I can't afford to take on any staff right now. Since the pirate raids started again we have had no business and they keep on looting all our stock. I have had to fire all my staff." The man said shifting nervously, taking out a cloth the mop the sweat from his forehead.

"Dammit I'll never be able to find a job! Why aren't the marines protecting you? I haven't seen a single marine or law bringer of any kind since I got here."

"The castle to the north. It belongs to some marine commodore he is our self appointed mayor. His first mayoral act was to restation all of the marines at his castle, they only come down to this place to collect his extortionate taxes and enlist anyone strong enough to protect us into his own bodyguard army. We are defenceless." He was still mopping his forehead with no noticeable success, if anything he was sweating more.

"What?!" Van suddenly paid attention to the conversation. "That's not fair. You people are helpless here. I'm gonna go kick his ass!" As Van spoke a loud bell rang drowning out most of his sentence.

"What's that?" Naye inquired as the restaurant owner quickly scuttled back down his stepladders, folded them up under his arm and ran toward the kitchen. He stopped just before he went through the door and turned back toward them.

"Pirates!"

(--)

"Do you think Naye will stay give Van the message?" Haze asked as she dashed through the forest with a yellow glow around her, jumping over fallen trees and general forestry rubble as the trees and other scenery flashed by in a blur.

"He will pass on the message. Van has an odd ability to make people stay with him, even if they claim to not want to." Ayanne replied in full carbon armour also running with tremendous speed. "Thanks for slowing down for me. I couldn't keep up with you at full speed."

"No problem." Haze smiled politely. "This is far more sustainable anyway, I need to conserve my energy for getting the ship ready.

A horde of incredibly angry giant forest animals stood ahead staring at the incoming food, but as Ayanne and Haze flashed past them with implausible speed two cuts shot through the crowd and the vicious predators collapsed in a heap.

Haze glanced over her shoulder as she sheathed Aka-hana. "That was easy."

"Yeah but they are still irritating." Ayanne growled returning her arm from a blade to a hand.

The girls arrived back at the ship in record time, it had taken them less than half the time than it had taken them all to get _to the city. They clambered up the side of their vessel onto the deck and went through the routine of preparing the ship for cast off. Haze zipped round the boat in a yellow blur quickly getting the ship prepared while Ayanne did the heavy lifting duties like hoisting the sails and raising the anchor. Without Vans messing around the job took far less time and they were ready to set off. _

"_Ready miss navigator. I'll take care of the manoeuvring. You just guide me through these rocks."_

"_You will have to do exactly as I say." Haze said suddenly becoming far more confident and commanding as she always did when fulfilling her role as navigator. _

_The sails caught a breeze pulling the boat forward swiftly._

"_Port. Starboard. Port. A little more Portside." Haze ordered._

"_Yes ma'am." Ayanne yelled briefly taking one hand off the wheel to salute._

_Through a combination of Ayanne's skilled steering and Hazes incredible navigation the boat was free of the jagged corals in no time and out onto the coast sailing round to the main town. Suddenly bells echoed from the town aswell as several screams and yells. The two girls looked worriedly at each other then back toward the town._

_Haze walked toward the starboard railing and looked out toward the town. "I hope everything's okay."_

_(--)_

_Van and Naye stepped back out into the streets and into chaos. The townspeople were running madly through the streets and into their homes quickly locking up all the doors and windows to protect them from the pirate threat. _

"_They're in the town centre. Quick get to safety!" A passing woman screamed before jumping through her front door then slamming it behind her with the sound of several locking mechanisms quickly following._

"_You heard the lady." Naye said pointing in the general direction of the town centre._

"_Let's go." Van concurred cracking his knuckles as the walked._

_The two boys eventually reached the source of the panic. In the middle of the town centre on the steps leading up to a statue of a marine officer of some description stood a thin but muscular man dressed in a red hooded jumper and black shorts stood with two odd looking contraptions attached to each wrist. He was a handsome man with blond blue, heavily styled hair and what appeared to be purple contact lenses. _

_He was obviously the captain as he was surrounded by laughing pirates who were causing havoc and assaulting any townsperson they could get their hands on._

_The captain laughed maniacally to himself as he looked upon the panic that he and his men had caused._

"_That's it, run insects!" He roared at the fleeing civilians, his laughter was cut short as two of his men hurtled into the solid base of the statue next to him. The rest of the pirates also fell silent as they glared irately at the two figures standing in the direction their comrades had been thrown from._

"_Now you kids have done it. Don't you know? We're the dragon tongue pirates. The 156,000,000 beri rookie crew." The captain shouted signalling one of the pirates near the front of the crowd to charge at Van and Naye with his sword drawn they didn't even flinch._

"_Is that so?" Van said knocking the attacker out in a single punch and sending him flying off to his left then he cracked his neck loudly before continuing. "Because I'm the Captain of the Dragon Tongue Pirates. And I don't recognise a single one of you bastards."_

"_W-What?" The captain looked scared for a moment then noticed the remaining civilians staring at the scene. He quickly smiled confidently. "I'm the captain of the Dragon Tongue pirates and we are going to teach you snot nosed kids a lesson." He pointed an open palm at Van and Naye throwing a stream of fire from the contraption attached to his wrist in their direction. The area they were in was quickly engulfed in flames but quickly died down into a tiny line of fire in front of them._

"_Even your fire is pathetic." Him and Naye stepped calmly over the flames preparing for the fight that was to follow. "Attacking a town is one thing but pretending you're in my crew… Is why I'm going to beat down every single one of you bastards!"

* * *

_

**A/N:** Well unfortunately it has taken longer than I thought once again. I'm so sorry but I have had so much to do, all my deadlines have kept me busy. I have stayed up until 6:10 am to finish this so I hope that makes up for it. Please keep reviewing and submitting characters the response has been amazing and is really appreciated =) On a note parallel to last weeks I have done a full character rbreakdown for Van (warning contains spoilers so caution) on deviant aswell as a Haze poster. I was informed by several people it blocked my link last time so just search Van niko or Haze wanted poster if you want to see them. Again if there is any character you want me to attempt to illustrate just say in the reviews. This ends the longest authors note ever good night all.

ShX


	12. Chapter 11 Strange island part 2

**Disclaimer: Haven't done one for a while. Guess what. I don't own one piece. SSSSsssshhhh don't tell anyone.**

**

* * *

Chapter 11.**

**A dish best served... Furry?**

* * *

"Naye, are you in?" Van half glanced over his left shoulder toward the chef. Who stood in contemplation briefly flashing back to the first time Van asked him this.

"He's the reason I couldn't get that job. I don't take rejection well." Naye raised his hand with his palms facing upwards as shards of void materialised a few inches above them, Naye's face changed to a grim smile.

Van grinned broadly then opened his mouth slightly as it filled with fire, he closed it again spitting a fire ball onto his right hand then rubbing it together with his left spreading the flames round both hands. "Well then, let's go." The moment he finished speaking he and Naye both darted toward the nearest opponent they could find which, unfortunately for the target in question, was only one man. A fist surrounded by void and one of fire both struck him hard in the face immediately decommissioning him as he hurtled into a small group of his comrades. Van and Naye then split in opposite directions each darting toward a different substantial group of pirates.

Naye sent void flowing along the floor like water amongst the feet of the pirates before making a sudden upward gesture with his clenched fist, the void rose in pillars each with a fist on top colliding with an enemies chin sending them flying into the air. The pillars melted back into a liquid form spiralling back toward Naye open hand which he then aimed up toward the airborne enemies. "Void Bolt-Storm." Hundreds of tiny raindrop shaped projectiles shot out of the hovering black liquid becoming solid the moment they left and battered the pirates, hitting them with such force and in such quick succession they were kept hovering in the air being bombarded by the hard hitting torrent. Naye stopped the attack allowing them to drop to the floor with an unconscious *THUD*. He grunted disapprovingly then turned his attention to the next group.

Mean while Van had no such planning and grace to his attack, he dived toward the closest one of his chosen crowd with his fist dawn back. "Hi-sentou Bullet", the fiery punch hit the man hard in the chest knocking him to the right with tremendous force. Without losing momentum Van continued his rotation brining the back of his engulfed left fist into another pirates face "Hi-sentou Recoil", the force concaved the man's nose and knocking the back of his head into that of his allies sending them crashing into the statue next to their captain who stood staring in shock. As Van was about to land he leant forward placed his right hand on the ground and let off a pulse of fire from his left for balance while kicking a nearby pirate in the head then letting out a larger pulse from his right sending him into the air. As he rose up he looked in Naye's direction to see pirates at the same height as him being barraged by void bolts, he redirected his attention back towards his own enemies, "Hi-sentou Mortar", Van unleashed a fast chain of punches toward the floor each sending a ball of fire from the end of his fists exploding on impact with the ground dispersing the enemy pirates with extreme force. Van landed contentedly amongst the bodies rubbing his hands together as he walked toward the next, now slightly more worried looking group of pirates.

(--)

On the dragon head ship, Haze and Ayanne looked on impatiently toward the dock, the yells and fighting could be heard even on the coast.

"This is to irritating." Haze growled kicking the ships railing, "Stupid wind why can't it go any faster?"

"Well we are nearly there now." Ayanne said with her arms folded, in her fully armoured state once again.

"Hey do you think they are the ones causing all the panic?" Haze pointed toward a ship in the towns dock, it had a flag very similar to there own.

"I imagine Van is causing his fair share too. But it looks like they're the reinforcements."

"Well then how about we go and say a friendly hello?" Haze smiled mischievously while drumming her fingers on Aka-Hanas hilt.

"It would be the neighbourly thing to do wouldn't it." The diamond like teeth on the face of the armour formed into an ominous grin and the two pirates prepared for their 'greeting'.

As the Dragon tongues ship pulled up aside the impostors' vessel Haze spun round effortlessly sending a pink 'Sakura Wave' cutting through the ships mast like a hot knife through butter. The pirates who had remained on the ship for back up were taken by complete surprise as the mast let out a daunting creek and began toppling towards them.

"Timber!" Haze giggled as Ayanne ran and leapt over her head and onto the other ship landing on top of two crew members whose reaction times weren't good enough.

The enemy phoney crew quickly recomposed themselves into some sort of order, the falling mast hadn't actually hit them just knocked them off their feet and caused some hefty damage to the ship.

Haze jumped down to Ayanne's side, and the two girls stared down their opponents intensely. "Wow this ship is really poorly made." Haze smirked and pointed at the large crack down the middle of the ship.

"Yeah whoever sold you this must be pretty pleased with himself." Ayanne added.

"The people we… 'acquired' this ship from are no longer with us, if you catch my drift." One of the more confident looking pirates growled thuggishly.

"Well aren't you all the badasses?" Haze said sarcastically, barely able to keep a straight face.

Haze glowed yellow briefly as she appeared behind the pirate crowd and clicked Aka-Hana back into place. The pirates quickly checked to see if they were hurt but none of them appeared to even be scratched.

"Haha you missed lil' girl." The pirate who had already chosen to speak said once again.

Just then a grin spread across Hazes face and a second later all of the pirates pants fell down much to their embarrassment. The red faced pirates clambered to cover their wide variety of underwear, the previously cocky pirate was donning white boxers with pink flowers and he seemed most embarrassed of all.

"Damn you!" He screamed desperately pulling his trousers back up. "We will kill you for this."

"Oh will you now?" The deep armoured voice of Ayanne boomed over his head. He turned only to see a grey fist then darkness.

The rest of the pirates spun on their heels to face Ayanne leaving only one looking at Haze, not one of the men but a woman standing on the bow behind her. She had jet black hair and a tattered t-shirt and jeans combo with comparatively pristine sneakers. Around her waste was a red belt with six katana attached to it.

"You shouldn't leave yourself open!" She darted down towards Haze drawing two of her blades and slicing in an X shape towards her.

"And you shouldn't make such Baseless assumptions about people." She replied spinning and blocking the attack with ease the three blades locked momentarily then Haze forced her adversary backward. Over Hazes shoulder you could see Ayanne making easy work of the other pirates throwing them around the boat like rag dolls.

"Silly little girl thinking she can play with the real pirates." The pirate woman scoffed looking at Haze condescendingly.

Her confidence caused her to drop her guard momentarily, this was all Haze needed. The redhead lunged forward releasing a stream of yellow energy in her wake and struck her opponent in the chest with the pommel of the blade knocking her backward into the railing at the bow.

"Ugh, that's it! Now you have really made me angry you cocky little bitch!" The pirate pushed herself from the railing and started swiping at Haze furiously with both her blades.

Haze didn't even block the incoming attacks, she just dodged them with ease, ducking and sidestepping every ill-placed strike with a precision movement. The female pirate eventually tried to trap Haze by crossing her blades and striking in a scissor like motion. Haze brought Aka-hana in the way stopping the cut. Haze then placed her left hand on top of the blade pushing it down toward the deck, the well-crafted katana pierced the wood with ease sliding down to the hilt trapping the other blades. Haze then pushed off the top of the pommel flipping forward onto it. She stood on top of the handle on her tip toes with her right palm aimed point blank at the black haired woman's face.

"I'm not the cocky one you old bat." She lowered her aim to the woman's chest and smiled. "Your just lucky it wasn't my captain that found you, he won't be happy. **Konki Bakuha!**" A quick blue glow surrounded Haze's hand and the black haired pirate cannoned backward into the railing once more with a trail of smoke emanating from her left shoulder where the attack had burned her.

"That mark is so you don't forget who the real Dragon Tongue pirates are." Haze turned contentedly and smiled as Ayanne finished off the last two lower ranking pirates and threw them overboard.

*Cough-cough* "Hahaha-*cough* foolish girl." Haze turned round in shock to see the black haired swordswoman still standing, unable to understand how she could have withstood that last attack.

"Just stay down your in no position to fight, you can barely stand." Ayanne pointed out as she watched the woman stagger from side to side.

"Is that so?" She replied picking up her blades from the floor where Aka-hana had been. "You think you are the only ones with devil fruit abilities. We are only pretending to be you so we don't acquire any unwanted attention. We don't want fame, we just want money." Small black bristles grew from her skin all over her body as it changed shape, four more arms emerged from her back and her eyes split into two then those four eyes split again.

"A zoan type? Of a spider?" Haze spoke slowly, slightly awe stuck.

"That's right little girl. My name is Anancy Hachi and I am going to show you the grave error you've made in attacking us."

(--)

Van and Naye tore effortlessly through the opposing pirate forces, fire and void flew in every direction knocking out pirate after pirate with ease. The captain remained on the stairs next to the statue watching on in apparent interest.

Naye stood in the centre of a crowd of enemies who had managed to surround him, all of them stood with their blades ready but no-one moved. Naye eyed up his trappers carefully waiting patiently for them to make their move. It was over in a flash, one of the men went in for the kill and Naye disarmed him with ease surrounding the katana with void and yanking it out of his hands. This first attack prompted the rest to charge in, each attack thrown at Naye was easily dodged with a well placed ever so slight sidestep followed by a precise 1 hit KO with a void bolt. Naye stood up and froze as he heard the familiar click of a trigger being cocked, in this case it was pointed, in very close proximity, to the back of Naye's head.

Van glanced across to Naye and his eyes widened as he spotted the gun trained on the back of his head. There was no way he could dodge it at that range, and Van knew he couldn't get over there in time, the world slowed as he watched the pirate pull the trigger. Van's face screwed up into a look of intense concentration, the hammer released into the gun and the gun powder ignited, Van could feel the flames ignite in the gun, he made a sharp sweeping gesture with his hand, focusing all his energy into it. The bullet didn't leave the chamber of the pistol, instead the back of the gun exploded as it misfired sending shrapnel like shards into the gunman's face causing him to fall to the floor in pain. Naye had closed his eyes in preparation but slowly opened them again when the bullet didn't come. He turned to the pirate writhing on the ground holding his face, with an annoyed look on his face he sent a geyser of void underneath him sending him flying upward into the air, until he quickly faded out of site. Naye clapped the dust off his hands and joined Van to finish off his horde.

"Why did you save me?" Naye asked, as him and Van fought off incoming attacks back to back.

"Because we're nakama you idiot. Nakama watch each others backs."

"But I told you I wasn't joining your crew, didn't you hear me?"

Van grinned. "I heard you. But what has that got to do with anything?"

Naye let out a slight smirk being careful not to let Van notice. He and Van then pushed off each other, cannonballing into their respective halves with a forceful attack sending their enemies flying in all directions.

"Well, that's the last of 'em." Naye said dusting off his hands on his pants.

"Just one more to go." Van added as they slowly walked toward the captain.

The captain began laughing maniacally, "You honestly think you've won don't you." His amused expression suddenly faded into a much more serious one. "What a joke. This has only just started. Do you know who we are?"

Van and Naye both shook there heads, the man looked slightly disappointed but still deadly serious.

"How about now?" He yelled pulling off the blue wig he had worn to make the identity theft more convincing.

Van and Naye carried on shaking their heads, the silver haired pirate captain collapsed in a heap on the floor in exasperation. He rose back to his feet looking serious once again.

"No matter. I'll inform you." He said slowly walking down the stairs. "We didn't pretend to be the 'Dragon Tongue Pirates' to make them scared. It was so when it gets reported that we are terrorising the town we won't get any bounty for it. My name is Francis Jerov," The mans accent changed as he began the last sentence, he continued in his Russian brogue, "And my bounty is ninety nine million berry, I have know intention of letting it rise over that as it vill put us into a league that has far more attention paid to it. This is something ve do not vant. Now Dragon Tongue Pirates, see how you do against the Lycanthrope Crew." As he spoke many of the enemies Van and Naye had beaten up rose to their feet grinning viciously as they began to transform. Every standing pirate turned into some form of hybrid animal, including the captain who transformed into an arctic wolf.

"Every one of my crew possesses a zoan type devil fruit." Jerov growled through his snarling teeth.

The two teenage pirates stood back to back as the two dozen large zoan hybrids closed in on them

Van nudged Mik awake on his shoulder, the dragon yawned lazily then his eyes shot wide open in surprise as he saw the monstrous creatures surrounding him.

"Just like I showed you Mik." Van looked almost happy at the opportunity to have a proper fight.

"I have never fought a zoo before." Naye smiled as he cracked his knuckles.

"Time to leave Mik. It looks like it's bout to get interesting. Go find Haze." The small dragon spiralled round Van's body to the floor and scurried along the floor through the crowds.

A few of the Hybrids watched as the dragon scuttled away, this served as a perfect opportunity for Van and Naye.

"Pay attention." Naye shouted as him and Van struck a distracted zoan each hard in the face with a crack.

(--)

Back on the impostors' ship Ayanne and Haze confronted the arachnid hybrid in front of them, Anancy slowly drew the other four of her katana grinning evilly under her mandibles, she was by no means a pretty sight now. Haze made a quick dash toward the spider glowing yellow as she moved with lightning speed, the spider woman brought all of her blades down in front of her with equally impressive reflexes creating a sharp cage like structure which stopped Hazes attack with ease. She then slashed from the cage position with all the blades, Haze didn't stand a chance as the attack hurled her the full length of the ship and into the cabin wall, she felt several ribs crack and a searing pain in her shoulder from a fairly shallow but still very painful cut.

Ayanne made her move the second Haze was knocked back charging at the spider full force with her carbon blade arm extended behind her. She swung the hefty weapon with impossible speed, considering its size, straight toward the spiders unguarded chest. Suddenly a strange sparkling sticky wire substance quickly formed a large webbed shield in the path of the attack, which not only stopped it but also trapped Ayanne.

"Now you're mine." the arachna-pirate hissed coldly raising all of her blades ready to attack.

The blades all crossed one another as the attacked hit, causing a star shaped slice through the air. Fortunately Ayanne's armour was more than strong enough to withstand this attack, two of the blades snapped clean in half as they made contact with the carbon exoskeleton.

Anancy looked annoyed for a moment but her evil grin soon returned, "Oh well. I have plenty of time to work through that armour, there's no need to rush." Her insane cackle echoed out into the darkness.

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**A/N: **Well hope you like it =) Review and let me know either way. As always would love to read some character submissions, especially for bad guys and rivals XD Anyway merry christmas.

ShX


	13. Chapter 12 Strange Island part 3

**A/N:** It has been like two months since my last post I think so you might wanna scan through the last two chapters to remember whats happening =) Sorry.

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**Chapter 12.**

**The Tamers.  
**

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The hybrid spider had been swiping at Ayanne's armour for a while now, although it wasn't doing any physical damage the constant knocks were beginning to break her concentration. She began struggling to break free from the webs but it just made things worse. Anancy laughed in spiteful glee as she watched her prey begin to panic.

One of the freakish spiders eyes caught the site of movement to her right, a yellow flash hurtled toward her. She blocked Aka-Hana as it swiped horizontally toward her, Anancy used her remaining free arms to respond with an attack of her own. Haze quickly jumped backward narrowly escaping the four blades.

"So you are back on your feet miss wannabe pirate." Her mandibles clicked together while she spoke.

"It will take a lot more than that to take me out spider-bitch." Haze tried not to let the pain that was shooting through her body show but it was difficult.

She began to glow pink as she raised her blade, with a quick motion a 'Sakura Wave' blasted down the deck toward the six armed Zoan. Anancy didn't even flinch as the wave appeared to freeze in mid-air before dispersing.

"My webs are stronger than steel and impossible to avoid. Your attacks are pointless and escape is hopeless." The enormous spider laughed to herself while firing several net like webs in Hazes direction, all of them missing by mere inches when she darted out of the way.

_'I can't keep going like this.' _Haze thought as she continued to dodge the onslaught of projectile attacks, the whole time looking for any sort of weakness or opening she could take advantage of despairingly there was nothing. Any energy attack Haze tried was caught in the webbing until it evaporated and she knew she couldn't risk getting in close or she'd end up like… Hazes eyes darted toward where Ayanne had been trapped but she wasn't there. Suddenly, out of nowhere Ayanne appeared but not in the rough full bodied armour that she had been in before. Instead the armour she was wearing was form fitting and had no helmet. She came down from the air swinging a medieval style sword which had a carbon handle and diamond blade. Anancy just about raised three of her blades to block the airborne attack. Ayanne pushed off the blades, flipping over the spiders head and landing next to Haze.

"Wow! That armours incredible." Haze said pointing at Ayanne's new appearance, her eyes almost sparkling with amazement.

"I thought I would try something different. It's weaker but much more flexible. Plus, losing the other armour freed me from that damn web."

Ayanne raised her blade pointing it toward Anancy, her white hair blew in the breeze, Haze mimicked the action and in a blink of an eye the two blade wielding crewmates moved toward their target. The two girls jumped high into the air to avoid any webs that may have been waiting for them on deck. Anancy quickly jumped backward before the two attacks simultaneously plummeted back toward earth, the deck shattered from the force of the strikes spiralling outward it reduced the ship to rubble. The three pirates jumped to shore as any one of them would sink instantly if they landed in the water.

"Our boat! No matter we will just take yours." Anancy fired a complex structure of webbing around the dockyard, it became invisible the moment it settled.

Ayanne and Haze glanced at each other nervously, they knew if they moved too far from their current position they would be ensnared for sure. Anancy jumped onto her web climbing the invisible strands quickly and with effortless ease. Ayanne and Haze readied themselves for her attack but were still caught off guard when she made her move. The spider Zoan jumped along the strands above them while unleashing a constant wave of slashes from her six blades. Haze glowed pink once more in another effort to attack her opponent but the wave of Sakura energy was instantly caught in the webbing stopping it dead.

"It's useless, just accept your fate."

The spiders remark only made them defend more ardently than before, they parried and blocked blow after blow but the way things were going they wouldn't be able to hold on much longer and they knew it.

Ayanne looked across at Haze, "We can't keep this up. We have to finish her quickly."

Haze was just about to question how exactly they were supposed to do that when Ayanne hurled her diamond blade toward Anancy then concentrated hard forcing wing like carbon fibre out the back of her armour. She smiled at haze then jumped upward with all the force she could spinning as she moved catching as much of the webbing as she possibly could. Haze quickly understood the situation and glowed blue readying Aka-Hana by her side.

"Sakuraken!" A wave of sakura like energy formed a blade shape following the stroke of Aka-Hana flying up toward Anancy whose eyes widened (all eight of them) at the sudden change of pace.

The large spider managed to fire off a web at the last possible second pulling her out the way of the fatal attack. Unfortunately for her she wasn't quite fast enough, she clutched two of her arm's letting out a slight whimper of pain, the edge of the attack had cut them quite badly.

Haze landed with less grace than was usually her style and panted heavily, a combination of injury and overusing her devil fruit had left her exhausted. She knew she could probably make one more attack but then she'd be spent. Haze looked up at her six armed opponent, who appeared to be in much better condition than herself. _'I have to make the next one count.' _She thought struggling to stay conscious.

Anancy had recovered a bit now and raised her fighting stance once more, Haze felt hope slip away as she watched her opponent reconstruct her web fortress between them. She couldn't cut through it, that just added to Anancy's already substantial home field advantage, while she had almost nothing in her favour. She only half registered the faint pitter-patter of tiny feet to her right, she looked across to see a small blurry creature waddling toward her.

"Mik?" Haze squinted to try and bring her vision into focus, the silver dragon chirped cheerily as he ran toward her. Mik jumped toward her somersaulting in mid air and changing into the katana that Van favoured. Haze released one of the hands holding Aka-Hana and grabbed the dragon blade's handle tightly, smiling as Mik puffed a small pulse of fire from his nostrils.

"Its too late little pirate." Anancy sniggered condescendingly. "My defence is already up. Its hopeless."

"Hopeless? I think your mistaken." Haze replied grinning with resolve as she raised both katana side by side over her head and glowed bright pink. "This is absolute." A combination of sakura energy and fire spiralled upward like a tornado piercing the clouds above. "HiryuSakura " The red head brought both blades forward in a downward slashing motion bringing the flaming pink obelisk down like a blade. The flames ripped through the webs and the sakura did the rest. When the attack had cleared Anancy lay scorched and cut all over, no longer in her Zoan form, she was unconscious.

The webbing surrounding Ayanne melted away into nothing the moment Mik's flames touched it, Mik had returned to his normal form and was stood on top of Ayanne dispersing her sticky restraints. Haze stood breathing heavily leaning on the pommel of Aka-Hana.

"I showed her." Haze said smiling momentarily before her hand slipped from the top of Aka-Hana and she fell to the floor unconscious.

(--)

Naye and Van dodged and deflected incoming teeth claws and tales from all directions and had been for a while. They were definitely being overpowered, they knew it and, unfortunately the lychenthrope knew it too. Naye quickly attempted to make a counter attack to reduce the enemies numbers but the moment he readied his attack he was struck with lightning speed by a white fur covered fist knocking him backward into a wall a few metres away. The arctic wolf pirate captain grinned viciously, drool dripped from his gleaming fangs.

Van ran over to his comrade pulling him to his feet before immediately having to defend himself against a flurry of clawed strikes that bombarded him. Naye raised a shield of void material but it was disintegrated before he could solidify it.

"We need to split them up. I can take 'em, I know I can but that captain is too fast I don't get a chance." Naye's arms were bleeding quite badly .

"Good, I really wanna take a crack at that captain guy," Van said with what was somewhere between grinning and wincing as his own arms were being shredded, "I get to try out my new techniques."

_'Okay think bright thoughts.' _Van thought to himself while he ground his teeth together to get a spark. He opened his mouth holding a small ball of fire within it, the fireball started glowing white then suddenly became blindingly bright. The flash momentarily stunned the of pirates, Van seized the opportunity and made a bee line for Captain Jerov. He grabbed the white wolf round his fury waste and inhaled sharply through his nose before releasing a stream of fire from his mouth firing both him and the tightly gripped Captain Jerov into the air and over one of the buildings that surrounded the courtyard they had been fighting in.

While travelling through the air, the stun of the flash had worn off and the captain snarled at Van. Forcing loose Van's grip of his waste Jerov strook him six times in the chest in less than a second. Each attack had left five shallow holes in Vans skin and he hurtled toward the ground with a thud followed by the cracking of pavement and bone.

Naye watched Van and Jerov fly out of sight over the top of the building then returned his attention to the matter at hand, which was to deal with the mangy Zoan's. Both Naye and the hybrid pirates had become distracted by an odd trumpet like noise that seemed to be getting closer. Everyone froze on the spot, including Naye and looked around in confusion. Eventually they looked up to see what appeared to be an elephant come crashing down from the sky right on top of the crowd of Zoan pirates. Naye stared blankly at the unexpected collision, blinking a couple of times to ensure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. The cloud of dust slowly dispersed revealing a scattered mass of unconscious and dead pirates. A few were able to move out of the way and stood in shocked awe at the misfortune of their comrades.

The elephant that had fallen from the sky also appeared to be okay, but had several cuts and burns on his face, Naye remembered the pirate he had fired into the air after his gun backfired into his face, he looked angry. His rage was cut short when he realised he had just wiped out half his crew, he stood looking down at his scattered nakama, his eyes were practically jumping out of his head. The remaining pirates were the elephant, an armadillo, a scorpion and a lynx, they all looked like they were the stronger members of the crew judging from their body language and the battle scars that covered them. Naye surrounded his hand with the jet black void substance ready for a fight.

The lynx moved first, he was fast, Naye barely had time to block the barrage of clawed attacks that came from behind him. While Naye was distracted by the lynx the other pirates began their attack, the armadillo rolled into a large armoured ball which was picked up by the elephants trunk, he then started to spin holding the armoured ball at the full length of his trunk, upon release the armadillo shot toward Naye like a cannonball. The lynx jumped out of the path just before the ball collided with Naye's back knocking him through a nearby building. The armadillo continued to bouncing from wall to wall around the courtyard at a high rate of speed but seemed in complete control of his movements. Naye slowly crawled out of the rubble and stood up brushing off some of the dust from his pants. His eyes widened as the armadillo came spinning toward him, he rolled to his right then back to his left as the armadillo hurtled past, rebounded off a wall and came back.

Naye quickly restored the void around his hands, just in time too, as the scorpion charged toward him. Four of the scorpions arms were like shelled human arms but two of them were tipped with razor sharp pincers. Naye formed the void into a hexagonal shield infront of him to block the incoming attack, he felt the impact of the pincers rebounding off the shield, but then a large stinger pierced through it stopping worryingy close to Naye's face. Naye peered round his black shield to see the scorpion with its tail arcing over its head and lodged firmly in his shield. The scorpion grinned at him grimly before flicking his tail back over his head catapulting Naye over his shoulder. As he flew through the air a large muscular hand grabbed him by the face and slammed him into the floor. Naye felt the anger bubble up inside of him, _That's it _he thought practically steaming.

The elephant that had slammed him raised its enormous foot to stamp on the comparatively insect like human, Naye sent a geyser of void into the large grey Zoan's foot knocking him off balance making him stumble backwards. Naye hopped up out of the crater he was in with void spinning in a ring around his wrists. The lynx appeared next to him from nowhere but Naye was ready and **not** in the mood. The clawed foot swung towards his face but he grabbed it using the void to anchor it to his hand.

"Got you now kitty."

Naye's ear twitched at the rumbling of the incoming armadillo ball behind him, he spun round using the lynx Zoan as a bat and smacking the projectile into the scorpion with bone shattering force. He released the unconscious lynx who returned to his human form as he hit the floor. When scorpion was mowed down by the armadillo his stinger had pierced its shell, returning them both to human form from loss of consciousness and blood respectively. All that was left was the elephant. With a trumpeting noise from his nose he charged, his sharpened tusks at the forefront of his attack, he moved faster than Naye expected possible for something that size. Naye smiled confidently, raised a block of void he had sent along the floor right in front of the elephants footstep. With a crash the elephant ploughed head first into the floor digging several feet into the concrete floor before turning back to his human form.

Before he had time to catch his breath Naye was startled by Van crashing through the building he had vanished over a few minutes ago, he skidded to a stop motionless on his back and covered in cuts. Captain Jerov stepped slowly out from the hole in the wall dusting off his hands. The large white wolf didn't even have a scratch on him. Naye immediately sent a rush of void across the floor erupting into a fist underneath Jerov but he was gone.

"Too slow." The growling voice came from behind. Before Naye had time to respond in any way a sharp pain shot up his back. Jerov's claws cleaved effortlessly through his skin and raised him off the floor gripping hard into his back.

"Put him down." Van was now on his feet with a look of anger and determination in his eyes.

"Vhat vas that boy?"

"I said, put my nakama down. Fleabag." Jerov tossed Naye to the side like a rag doll.

Van spat fire onto his hands and crouched. Jerov shot toward him with the same lightning speed as before. Van slammed both fists into the floor.

"Overdrive!" Flames exploded up Van's arms to just past his elbows and up his legs to just past his knees. The explosive force of the flames knocked Jerov back before his attack made contact.

Van stood up his arms and legs still on fire. Jerov moved in for the kill once more with equal momentum as before but Van disappeared, the next thing Jerov knew Van's fist had connected hard with his chin and he'd been knocked into a wall with tremendous force.

"How?" The wolf spat blood onto the floor. "No-one can keep up with my speed."

"Is that so." Van smirked disappearing again, then connecting a strong right hook into Jerov's ribs which cracked loudly. The attack knocked him off his feet and sent him flying to the right, van appeared in his flight path with one leg raised above his head, "Ryu Trigger." he brought his heel down like an axe onto Jerov's head crushing it into the concrete floor.

Jerov slowly pushed himself to his feet, he definitely had some scratches on him now and some cuts and even a few broken bones. "The fire. Like a rocket. But I won't let you beat me."

Van was now stretching his legs and his arms getting used to the new strain they were being put under. Jerov darted toward him with both claws poised for attack, Van carried on stretching as the wolf came within range he swiped his claws horizontally toward Van. Jerov froze with his arms crossed over post attack. A spray of blood escaped his mouth as he coughed and looked down to see Van with his knee forced into his ribs. A flaming fist quickly shot into his view as Van struck him with an uppercut knocking him into the air, Van spun extending a straight punch into his chest before he landed sending him skidding across the floor on his back. Van continued his stretching, bending over to touch his toes, Jerov lay on the floor staring at the clouds floating through the air. He pulled himself to his feet snarling angrily his eyes wild in feral frustration.

Jerov attempted to run toward Van, he managed half a step. "Ryu Bullet." Van appeared with his fist outstretched in front of him. Jerov was several metres away in a pile of rubble that used to be a wall.

As Jerov rose from the rubble staggering unsteadily Van readied himself for the final attack, he brought both fists to his right side and twisted his front foot into the floor for grip. "Ryyyyuuuu- atchatcha-HOOOOOOT!" Van danced around shaking the flames off his arms and legs then ran around smouldering and yelling loudly. While running around, black smoke billowing off his extremities Van suddenly felt an intense force to his stomach, which in this case was the force of a white furry paw connecting from Jerov's kick. Van shot backwards crashing into a water trough for horses. Van let out a long sigh of relief but the of the attack quickly set in. The furious arctic wolf Zoan grabbed Van by the shoulder, his claws dug effortlessly into Vans collar bone. Jerov lifted him up out of the trough at arms length then spun round flinging him into and through the one of the remaining undamaged walls left in the courtyard, Van lay motionless and Naye could only look on in frustration.

Jerov's eyes remained fixed on Van amongst the rubble. He slowly walked toward him scratching his claws against each other to make them the sharpest they could possibly be, each one twinkled like mettle under the glare of the sun.

Jerov's ear quickly focused on the buzzing that was fast approaching behind him growing louder by the second, by the time it reached him it was a roar of flame, a small pointed projectile flew past, inches from his face, the wolf man jumped backward avoiding the explosive blast of the firework. He slowly looked over his shoulder to see Loca stood pointing 'Noir' (the black revolver like firework launcher) straight at him. She still looked very hung over.

"I think it's my turn." She said smiling eagerly. The smile vanished as her cheeks puffed out trying to keep something in, she looked very green, the purple haired girl turned and bent over throwing up out of view. Jerov looked almost bewildered at this point. Loca turned back to him smiling once more. "So where was I? Oh right." She bent over knocking her wrist guards against her roller-blades causing the small rockets attached to them to spark into life.

"Three… two…one." Flames burst from the back of the blades propelling Loca forward with amazing acceleration, she shot past Jerov firing a rocket from 'Blanc' (her other launcher) which Jerov dodged only being hit by a small amount of the blast. Loca was a blur as she zig-zagged toward Jerov with blistering speed firing rocket after rocket in Jerov's direction but the Zoan captain was too fast he jumped and dashed past each one. As she flew past the white wolf she swung the barrel of a launcher into his shoulder spinning him round as the bone cracked. She repeated the gurilla warfare style attack a couple of times before it became ineffective and Jerov was able to dodge it. Loca bladed toward one of the perimeter walls, her speed allowed her to skate straight up the wall pushing off near the top back flipping over Captain Jerov unleashing a shower of rockets toward the floor, masking it with the explosive flame. Loca landed gracefully and instantly shot forward toward Jerov who spun round getting ready to dodge more attacks but Loca skidded to a stop just as the rockets ran out of power and spluttered out. Jerov grinned, showing his pearly white fangs.

"It's over. You're gonna meet the same fate as your friends." He began to laugh as he walked toward Loca flexing his clawed fingers to intimidate her before he put her out of her misery. A sly smile crept across Loca's face. "What are you so happy about?" The wolf snarled raised his white paw, claws out ready.

"Overdrive."

Jerov's eyes widened in panic, he spun on his heels to see Van stood up, flames blazing round his arms and legs. Van had both his hands position on his right hand side, his eyes were over shadowed by his hair and his scarf blew in the breeze.

"Ryuuuu." A pointy toothed grin spread across Van's face.

He appeared right in front of Jerov and fired his fists forward one over the other facing each other, the flames around his arms took the form of the top and bottom halves of a dragons head.

"Canon!" Vans fists connected with Jerov's chest and stomach forcing air and blood out of his mouth, a roaring column of fire blasted out of the dragons mouth knocking the already unconscious Jerov backwards through several buildings and down one of the adjacent streets.

The flames around Van slowly died out, leaving only a smoky aura around the battered pirate. At the end of the scorched strip along the floor that had been caused by Van's attack, Jerov lay smouldering and broken, his eyes had rolled back into his head and he, like the other Zoan's, had now returned to his human form. Van let out a long sigh standing up straight, smiling broadly he stretched out his arms and fell backwards as consciousness escaped him.

(--)

Van awoke two days later to Hazes slightly worried face peering over him, she jumped backward blushing slightly when he opened his eyes.

"You'-" She decided it would be better if she stopped talking.

Van sat up not really paying attention to what Haze was saying mostly because he couldn't understand her when she spoke this quickly. "Hey Haze" He noticed the bandages around her shoulder and some of the bandages round her stomach which were below the length of her t-shirt. "whoa! What happened to you? You okay?"

"I'm fine" Haze relaxed a bit and smiled, "me and Ayanne had a bit of a run in with a freaking huge spider. But we won."

"Yeah thanks to you." Ayanne said appearing in the doorway and leaning against the frame.

"Oh he's finally awake, man you are lazy." Naye leant against the other side of the doorway. "So what now captain?"

Van smiled broadly, he finally had his cook. "AWESOME!" He threw his hands in the air then winced in pain as his whole body punished him for his rash movement. All but his head was bound in bandages from a combination of punctures breakages and burns. "I think we should go get some food. Like loads of food."

(--)

The Dragon tongue pirates were once again sitting around the large circular table in the middle of 'the Sailors whimsy' the bar they had stayed inn the night before.

"Apapa you sure showed those pirates what-for." The barman said smiling widely. "Who would've thought they were just pretending to be the Dragon Tongue's."

"I heard there was actually a ninety million berri bounty on the captains head. Where would we collect?" Ayanne said with all the subtlety of a brick.

"Apapapa Yeah… about that, Commodore Yanzi-I mean the mayor-has already claimed that he defeated them and has collected the reward for himself."

"What!?" Ayanne steamed furiously. "Why that little Bast-."

"Oh well." Van smiled and sat back in his chair patting his bandaged stomach. "At least we've eaten."

"This is no time to be thinking about your stomach." Ayanne yelled punching him in the back of his head knocking his face into the table.

"Well we better be out of here." Haze said standing up. "The marines will be here to pick up Jerov soon."

"Good point." Said Van sitting up from his semi conscious state and wiping the drool from his mouth. "But we have one more thing to do first."

(--)

In the castle atop the hill overlooking the town of Seijou village, sat a pale gaunt man with pointy features, he sniggered to himself, snorting slightly as he counted through his recently obtained money. His bodyguards stood around looking at him in contempt. The true marines were easily distinguishable from the 'volunteers' from the town, as the marines had descent equipment and were standing closest to the 'mayor'. The mayors name was Commodore Yanzi, a marine who had brown nosed and ass-kissed his way to a descent rank, surrounding himself with powerful people to gain power by association, his face was almost devoid of any colour and rat-like in appearance, he had a thin mustache and black curly hair.

Without warning the large doors to the hall were ripped apart by what appeared to be sakura petals. In the shattered doorway stood five pirates silhouetted against the sun setting behind them, their eyes were almost glowing with menace.

"What the- GUARDS! Do something!"

The civilian bodyguards looked on in fear, there was no way they would risk their lives for the man who had torn them away from their families. The marines followed his orders immediately, all of them drew weapons pointing them toward the doorway. The silhouette on the far left gestured slightly with his right hand, a strange black substance spread across the floor toward the marines. The black puddle suddenly sprouted arms grabbing the guns and blades from the soldiers and pulling them to the floor. The silhouette on the far right fired a large revolver which released a rocket into the centre of the room, exploding into a bright white light. When the commodore had regained his site all of his marines were unconscious and four of the five pirates were stood right in front of the throne he had spent oh so much of his hard earned tax collection money on. A large grey monstrous looking creature tossed the last of the marines aside and rejoined its group. The five pirates stood with their eyes ominously masked by shadow. The blue haired pirate in the centre opened his mouth to talk.

"Leave this town immediately. Or Else!" He clicked his fingers and a red haired girl to his immediate right stepped forward and unsheathed her Katana. Glowing pink she released a wave of sakura petal toward the commodore, he flinched but nothing touched him, he just felt a thud and an ache in his rear as his precious throne shattered and collapsed underneath him.

Yanzi whimpered like the coward he was. "O-okay just please don't hurt me." He crawled away covering his head with his hands and hiding under a nearby table.

The blue haired pirate captain grinned revealing pointed sparkling white teeth and without another word the pirates left, though the large grey golem did walk over to the bag filled with the ninety million berri and picked it up before marching away muttering various cusses under its breath.

(--)

Within the hour Commodore Yanzi had boarded his ship and left quoting orders to return immediately in order begin an important navy mission but the villagers that had been there to witness his frenzied pleading knew the truth and grinned smugly as they waved him off.

Van and the others had already left the dock and sailed out to a safe distance to avoid being rumbled by the marines that had returned to there original posts in the town. The five pirates sat on deck chairs relaxing underneath the reddish orange sky of the sunset watching the scene through telescopes and eating popcorn that Naye had prepared especially.

"So where we heading miss navigator?" Naye asked looking across several chairs to Haze who put down her telescope and put another piece of popcorn in her mouth.

"North. Captains orders. We are gonna start making our way back to reverse mountain. I have plotted a course stopping at key islands on the way for supplies." She raised her telescope back to her eye. The crew began to laugh as Yanzi franticly rushed around his ship getting things ready to set sail and falling over several times in the process.

Van lowered his telescope and jumped out of his chair tipping the remaining popcorn out of the bag into his open mouth. "Raise the anchor and prepare to set sail. Let's get outta here."

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**A/N:** So this is the end of this little arc. I can't apologise enough for the wait I have had so much work to do I just haven't had the time to update. If you have still come back to this and read it anyway thank you =). I wish I could promise I will be returning to regular upadates but alas I cannot as I still have loads to do so bare with me, I aim to have another one done before easter. Please Review, and continue to submit any and all characters.

ShX


	14. Chapter 13 Relax

**Chapter 13.**

**A Calming day at the... oh.  
**

* * *

It had been several weeks since the Seijou village incident. The dragon tongue pirates had decided to relax and recover from their recent battles. Haze, Ayanne and Loca lay sunning themselves on the deck, while Van sat cross legged playing fetch with Mik; the dragon spiralled up the mast and dived off catching the small rubber ball and plummeting back down toward the deck landing with a thud on Van's head. The kitchen door flew open and Naye strolled out holding a tray of exotic looking drinks placing one down in front of each of the women who looked up and smiled in thanks. Van pried the dragon off his face and dropped him down onto the deck.

"Oi! Where's my steak?" Van yelled angrily as Naye strolled happily back into the kitchen and slammed the door behind him. The door flew back open and a large steak flew out hitting Van in his open mouth knocking him backward into a wall. With a gulp, Van swallowed the meat whole licking his lips appreciatively.

"Hmm…" Haze sat up slightly and lifted her sunglasses to get a better look at the horizon. "Time to get ready guys, land ho."

"Awww but I was enjoying this relaxing business." Loca whined also sitting up and folding her arms, huffing slightly.

"Well I chose this island specially. It's famous for its relaxing spa." Haze grinned broadly and winked at her nakama. "We better go get changed." The three girls stood up and walked to the women's quarters to change out of their bathing suits, Naye stood in the doorway to watch them walk away while Van sat ignorantly rubbing his full stomach innocent to those kinds of thoughts.

(--)

As they approached the island they passed a small fishing boat, the small vessel slowed down as it passed and a short old, bearded man poked his head out of the cabin.

"Hello!?" He shouted wheezily as the two boats slowly crept past each other. Van and Naye poked their heads over the side of the comparatively large ship.

"Hey!" Van smiled and waved cheerily. "What do you want?"

"You're pirates right?"

"Erm…" Naye hesitated, however Van answered immediately.

"Yeah we are. Ow why'd you nudge me Naye?" Naye pulled Van in close and whispered harshly. "Oh right yeah erm I mean we might be. Why?" He smiled and winked at Naye who just shook his head despairingly and walked away.

"Well if you are, you should anchor in the cove to the west of the island. That's where the other pirates went."

"Other pirates?" Van asked curiously, hearing this brought Naye back to the edge of the ship.

"Yeah another ship has already arrived. Well I best be going before all of the fish are gone. Bye" The old man waved them goodbye then ducked back into his boat and continued on his way.

(--)

Haze guided the crew to the western cove that the old man had suggested and, sure enough, another pirate ship was anchored up by the shore. The ship was a similar size to the dragon tongues and flew a unique jolly roger atop its mast. There didn't appear to be anyone aboard so the dragon tongues assumed the other pirates must have already headed to the nearby town; Onsen. The crew decided to do the same and headed east toward the islands main city. Van left Mik on board the ship as an alarm system to send off a flare if anyone came aboard.

"So what're we gonna do?" Van asked cheerily as the five pirates walked eastward.

"**We **are going to the spa." Ayanne said forcefully then grinning evilly. "**You two **are going to exchange this treasure for money." Van's excited expression didn't so much fade as melt into a look of disappointed boredom. Naye sighed and patted his captain on the back.

"Well we can get that out of the way quickly and then we can go do something interesting." He said trying to cheer up his captain who now had a dark cloud of depression hovering over his sullen head.

Van looked up grinning. "Good point. Let's go." He grabbed the bag of treasure from Ayanne with one hand and Naye's wrist with the other then sped off into the distance with a trail of dust and Naye flapping in the wind behind him.

(--)

The girls had taken a more relaxed approach in making their way into town and thus, arrived an hour later. The streets were bustling with what mainly appeared to be tourists. Varieties of holiday goers and locals walked round in their summery clothes to match the islands tropical climate. A large dome shaped building lay ahead of them shining in the intense midday sun.

"That's it guys. Our next few hours of relaxation are just ahead." Haze pointed at the sign at the entrance which read 'Paradise Place'.

As the three female pirates walked along the shorefront boulevard, two people who stood out from the rest of the crowds approached from the opposite direction. One was a tall man, about the same height as Van but older, around twenty one, with brown hair spiked up and forward into a point with long sideburns and a scar across his neck. He wore small round sunglasses and his white jacket flowed behind him as he walked along puffing smoke from a cigarette. Next to him was a beautiful nineteen year old girl with mostly black shoulder length hair apart from three dark blue streaks, her bangs covered her left eye and her cheek, leaving only one of her light grey eyes visible. The girl looked slightly embarrassed and was holding a small yellow bear with a zipper mouth and dark green button eyes.

Haze readied herself as the pair passed by but they didn't even look at her, and walked on without showing even the slightest acknowledgement of the three pirates' presence.

"Why do I have to hold this stupid bear all the time?" The girl said to her male companion.

"Because he would attract to much attention." The man replied without even looking at her.

A third voice from nowhere began to speak in an angry but muffled tone. "Who're 'ou ca'ing a 'tupid 'ear?!"

The man turned to look at the three girls that had just passed by, lowering his sunglasses down his nose so he could see over them. His eyes glowed turquoise as he stared. His eyes widened in mild surprise at what he saw, then quickly shut in pain as a fist swung across hitting him in the back of his head.

"Stop that you old pervert." The nineteen year old yelled staring angrily at the man with fire glowing slightly in her eyes.

"Ow ow oooouch. That hurt and I'm only two years older than you Tig."

"You're still a pervert." She swung another punch at him; this time hitting him in the cheek and knocking him to the ground, passers by had stopped to stare at the spectacle.

"Hehe." He grinned slightly. "Yeah I guess I am a lil'. Help me up would ya." He held out his free hand for some assistance in getting up.

"Not likely." The girl now identified as Tig crossed her arms and looked away. "If you can get floored so easily by a punch at half strength then I'm sorry Booth, you just don't deserve my help. Idiot."

Booth stared sorrowfully at his lost cigarette which glowed in abandonment on the pavement then he chuckled quietly as he attempted to scramble back to his feet. The crowds had now lost interest and gone back about their business. "I saw something… Odd." He said now back on his feet and walking alongside Tig once more.

"What was it?" Tig asked. The statement had obviously piqued her interest.

"I don't know. But I think we should hang around a while. I feel like something interesting is gonna happen." His smile broadened, creeping along his face until it was a wide excited looking smirk. "Should be a blast."

(--)

In the spa the girls had paid their five hundred thousand berri membership fee's, despite Ayanne's initial protests, and were currently relaxing alongside the pool. Loca despite being in a bathing suit still had her skates on despite being laid out on a reclining deckchair under a parasol.

"This place is ~soooo nice~" The purple haired Loca said tapping her skates together happily as a waiter came by to give her another drink.

"Yeah definitely. I'll admit it, definitely worth the five hundred thousand each it cost to get in here." Ayanne was lying on her front in a black bikini and sunglasses.

Haze was slowly spinning at the edge of the pool inside a rubber ring kicking her legs happily under the water. "I always wondered what this felt like. It's incredible." She splashed the water slightly so a fine cool mist washed over her face. "Did you guys see those two people on the way here?"

"Huh?" Loca looked puzzled trying to remember, though she was on her sixth cocktail and slightly tipsy. "Oo I know who you mean. ~ The guy with brown spiky hair and the girl holding the bear~" Loca didn't just sing her background after she'd had a little to drink; any sentence had a chance to become verse.

"Er yeah them. Didn't you think they looked out of place?" Haze asked grabbing onto the side of the pool so as not to float away.

"Perhaps they are the other pirates." Ayanne offered.

"Maybe. But I think I saw the world government symbol on his shirt, the white and black one. Maybe they're marines." Haze replied looking concerned.

"Are you sure? Marines don't usually go round in such small numbers."

"Not really I didn't get much of a chance to look and I didn't want to be noticed so I didn't look too hard. I suppose you're right about the numbers though."

"~The captains go in two by two hurrah hurrah~ ~The captains go in two by~ aah." With a light thud Loca fell off her chair but managing to save every drop of her drink from spilling.

Haze looked at Loca, "She's right."

Ayanne looked serious now too. "Yeah. Captains and ensigns usually break off from the rest as a pair. We should find Van and get off this island quickly. So much for relaxation."

(--)

Van and Naye had already cashed in the crews treasure for a cool 115,000,000 berri and even had time to take the money back to the ship to be locked in the lower decks safe. After they had finished their assigned task the two dragon tongue pirates returned to the city in order to find something fun to do, if for no other reason than to stop Van's pouting.

Naye being Naye, he immediately decided they should hit some of the local bars. He was itching for a drink, and maybe he would find some girls there. Well he could hope.

Thanks to his radar like bar finding skills Naye had found a bar by the name of 'The Hung Corsair', the name seemed ominous but Naye deemed it worth the risk if it meant he got a drink. Him and Van walked in and found a seat; Naye clicked his fingers to catch the attention of the waitress. The young girl came over smiling politely with her pad and pen at the ready.

"What can I get you guys?"

"We will take two beers please. And information about what time your shift finishes. Just out of personal interest." Naye grinned flirtatiously.

"And your biggest steak. No make that four." Van added leaning on Naye's shoulder to bring him into view. Naye hung his head shaking it in embarrassment.

"Erm…" Hesitated trying not to laugh.

"Just go." Naye said quietly. The waitress walked away giggling to herself trying to keep it quiet from her prospective tippers. Naye turned to Van with flames in his eyes and a vein pulsing in his head. "You are the worst wingman ever. You'll ruin me."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Van looked confused. Naye just shook his head.

"Baka."

"Excuse me, gentlemen." The voice came as a soft whisper. The boys looked across toward the source. A tall thin man with orange hair in a black suit stood smiling politely. "May I… Have a word."

(--)

Haze, Loca and Ayanne rushed through the city streets, looking for Van and Naye. There was something going on here, they could all feel it, the eyes watching their every move; surrounding them. They just didn't know who it was. They started off checking the exchanges office where they would have traded the gold for its equivalence in berri. The store owner shook his head as he told the girls how Van and Naye had been there earlier but had left several hours ago. They split up and searched down every street around town but to no avail. They regrouped in the centre of town, all looking slightly out of breath and none of them appeared to be having the relaxing time they'd planned.

"Hey guys, I thought you were having a day at the spa. What are you doing out here?" Van asked as he and Naye walked toward them.

"Where the hell have you been?" Ayanne yelled diving toward him and punching him in the face.

"OW! What was that for?" Van asked angrily rubbing the swelling in his cheek.

"We were looking everywhere for you. Baka!" She continued still looking annoyed.

"But you said-" Van attempted to argue but he didn't get a chance.

"Never mind that." Haze interrupted. "Have you seen any marines around town?"

"No. Have you?" Naye answered sounding slightly concerned.

"We aren't sure but we think there may be a captain here. We should leave just in case." Ayanne said thinking mainly about her precious money that she had only recently obtained and certainly wasn't ready to have confiscated.

"You're right." Van said with an odd look in his eyes. "We better hurry. Follow me we found a shortcut back to the ship." The five pirates hurriedly began making their way back to their ship; none of them were in any condition to be fighting marines.

(--)

The pirates had been running through the town for about ten minutes but seemed to be heading in the opposite direction of their ship.

"Van are you sure you know where you're going?" Loca asked as she skated alongside him.

"Of course I do." Van snapped in annoyance, something wasn't right with him, all three of the girls could see it but Naye didn't seem to notice.

"You're not still annoyed about us leaving you to trade in the gold are you?" Ayanne asked slightly mockingly.

"I'm fine." The pirates didn't really notice that the part of town they were now in was completely devoid of people and looked run down and abandoned. They ran into what appeared to be the old town centre surrounded on all sides by tall ominous looking dilapidated buildings.

"We're here." Naye said loudly as him and Van came to a halt. They suddenly started looking round with a startled expression on their faces. It was as though they had just been woken up.

"W-What happened? Where are we?" Naye asked confused and slightly worried about what exactly had happened.

"I-I dunno." Van was equally unnerved by what had happened. "Last thing I remember… You!" Van pointed a tall gaunt figure who stepped out of the shadows near one of the buildings. His brown eyes were cold and merciless, while remaining disturbingly calm about the whole situation.

"My name is Coral. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." His eyes had fixed upon Haze. He clicked his fingers summoning several dozen marines from the shadows behind him.

Van and Naye both darted forward ready to attack.

"Ah ah ah." Coral whispered smugly waving a finger. "Stop right there." Van and Naye froze in position. Their muscles tensed as they tried to force themselves to move.

"What did you do to them?" Haze shouted grabbing the handle of Aka-Hana. Ayanne and Loca also prepared for a fight. Coral quickly sequenced a series of complex hand movements, smiling calmly as the three girls charged toward him.

"Stop." He whispered again, almost sounding bored by the whole situation. The three girls froze in place alongside Van and Naye. Coral gestured toward Haze without any input from her brain she stepped toward him trying to stop herself with everything she had but couldn't muster any control.

"We wouldn't want you to get caught in the crossfire."

"Crossfire?" Haze looked on helplessly as the marines raised their rifles toward the remaining defenceless dragon tongue pirates.

"Fire." The words flowed effortlessly and without hesitation from Corals mouth, a small satisfied grin slowly appeared on his face.

Gunshots echoed around the courtyard which lit up from the numerous muzzle flashes followed by cold silence. The marines stared in confusion at the spherical lead shots that had lodged themselves in a transparent glowing green dome that surrounded the dragon tongue statues and rippled like water around the various points of impact.

Behind the pirates a figure walked out of the shadows cast by one of the dilapidated buildings. The sunlight lit up his round sunglasses, as his white marine captains jacket flowed behind him as he pulled a cigarette from his mouth and blew a cloud of smoke. "I'm not late am I?"

**WANTED: Grimmoiré 'Witchdoctor' Booth**

**Bounty: 36,000,000 Berri **

Coral looked angrily at the newcomer; he didn't appreciate his big moment being ruined like this. "Who do you think you are?" He whispered, but not as he had before, this time it was harsh and filled with anger. "Kill him." The marines charged forward but stopped as two more figures dropped down in front of them from the roof tops above.

"Humph, I don't see why we have to fight these guys. Booth's the one that pissed them off." The girl with the black and blue hair stood with a black derringer pistol in one hand and a card glowing purple in the other.

**WANTED: Tiggeh 'The Dark Magician' Hitomu**

**Bounty: 70,000,000 Berri**

"He just does not like marines. Vicarious masochism? Maybe. Ironic? Definitely." The second figure was the small bear Tiggeh had been carrying earlier, in his right hand he held a chainsword which was proportional to his two foot tall stature.

**WANTED: Orso 'Demon Bear' Mcgee**

**Bounty: 33,000,000 Berri**

"T-Tiggeh Hitomu? The seventy million berri rookie? What's she doing here?" The marines were looking nervous. "What's with that stupid bear? Is it a mascot or something?" The marine had just finished speaking when a roar came from the small bear's direction. It wasn't from him but his chain sword. Orso yanked the cord attached to the engine that powered the saw teeth that surrounded the blade, sparking it into life and accelerating the teeth round the perimeter of the blade into a vicious red blur. There was a loud gulp in unison from the crowd of marines making it easily audible.

The clink of a marine beginning to unsheathe his sword was the trigger and it was over in an instant. A blur with red splashes. The marines lay in a heap, still alive but not necessarily in one piece. Blood slowly dripped from the teeth of Orso's blade and smoke whispered from the barrel of Tiggeh's jet black derringer. Both pirates looked realxed; as though nothing had happened.

Coral's eyes were wide in shock; he couldn't understand how this had happened he was never this unprepared. But luckily for him he could control any situation with a wave of his hand. Yes, it was all under control. His wide eyes narrowed focusing on the white jacketed captain of the uninvited guests. He had managed to trigger the emergency marine call on his den-den mushi and would have an army of marines to help him carry the bodies back to the ship. Everything was under control.

Booth had calmly walked toward Coral and was now within striking range, Coral quickly sequenced a series of complex gestures and Booth's shoulders instantly tensed. Coral smiled, it was cold, calculating, victorious but short lived. His panicked expression quickly returned as Booth slowly raised a single uncouth middle digit and revealed a slight smile.

"Unlucky." He brought up his hand and tilted his glasses forwards revealing his glowing turquoise eyes. "You may try and hide behind your fancy tricks but I can see right through you." The moment he finished speaking he motioned his hand sweeping the left side of his naval jacket out of the way revealing a blue handled kodachi. He grasped the handle tightly in his right hand then appeared next to Coral blade arm extended and blowing smoke from the small white stick extruding from his mouth. Coral skidded backward along the floor clutching his arm, the attack had caught him off guard and he'd only narrowly escaped with just a flesh wound.

"I'll make sure you pay for this." He whispered sinisterly before dashing into a shadowy alleyway with unmatchable speed.

Booth sheathed his kodachi turning to his crew. "I think it's about time we got out of here." He said calmly. "There's probably backup on its way here."

The dragon tongue pirates, now freed from their hypnotised prison stretched out their muscles, worn out from trying to break free of Coral's hold.

Van walked over to Booth grinning broadly, his brother had always taught him to thank people for their help as a courtesy. He was just about to open his mouth when an intense flare emerged from beyond the tree line, on the horizon. "Mik!?"

"Someone must be at the boat." Ayanne yelled as she began to run in the general direction of the signal. "They better not touch my money." The entire dragon tongue crew followed sprinting in the direction of their ship.

"We better go too," Tiggeh sighed, "our boat is right next to theirs." The trio quickly followed behind, both crews heading to the same destination. Unaware of the surprises that awaited them there.

* * *

**A/N: **Well that's another one. And I am happy to introduce my second crew that will have their own story soon. Grimmoire Booth is mine. Tiggeh Hitomu is the amazingly brilliant creation of **Mysterious Panther** that I have been wanting to put into my story for a **long** time. And last but absolutely not least Orso Mcgee the two foot tall agro-bear masterpiece courtesy of **Dthehalfdragon**. I will start writing the new story after I finish the next chapter of this one. Please let me know what you think by reviewing. And as always PLEASE submit OC's for either story as I loves dem :3 Cheers.

ShX.


	15. Chapter 14 Midget Toss

**Chapter 14.**

**Short Comings.  
**

* * *

The eight pirates darted between the trees, the dragon tongues slightly ahead of the other three. It had been about fifteen minutes since they had seen Mik's flare. In the distance sunlight broke into the trees as they reached the opening, the light shone like at the end of a tunnel. The dragon tongues rushed out into the open and straight toward their ship. A shining gold barrier of energy appeared in front of them as they reached the gang plank, the entire crew rebounded off it flying onto their backs.

Van sat up rubbing his head. "What the hell was that?"

"Van."

"It's some sort of barrier." Van kicked it causing it to shimmer like sunlight on water.

"Van!" Haze shouted this time, she was pointing at something. The look of panic was obvious on her face and was one that Ayanne also had.

"What are you sh-" Vans eyes widened in shock. A group of marines stood with their weapons ready. At the front of the group was a young marine who appeared to be about fourteen years old, he had no shirt and a marine cap turned backwards. Van flashed back to when he last saw his brother, with this boys hand pushed through his chest.

"The Dragon Tongue Pirates. You have been busy since we last met." The boy said. He smiled smugly. His expression changed as the other three pirates emerged from the dense forest. Booth froze as he laid eyes upon the boy. Tiggeh and Orso didn't seem to recognise him. "You. It's your lucky day marines. Today I will show you what we do to traitors."

"Tig…" Booth began whispering something into his nakama's ear. Tiggeh nodded and reached into her back pocket drawing a deck of tarot cards. She sat down cross legged and closed her eyes.

"Did you really think the world government would forgive such insubordination?" The young marine's face was serious and focused, for a child; he was not child like at all.

"From the dwarfish appearance I'm guessing you're vice admiral Shinzo." Booth smiled coldly at the young marine vice admiral.

"D-Dwarfish?" Shinzo's eye twitched and a small vein pulsed angrily in his temple. "Oh I'm gonna enjoy killing you. But business before pleasure."

Van's eyes widened in panic as Shinzo disappeared, he didn't see him move but suddenly felt a presence behind him. A celestial glow surrounded Shinzo's hand, coming to a blade like point at the end of each digit. He struck toward Van's back with lightning speed the rookie captain had only just realised he was there and stood no chance at avoidance or deflection. Inches away from Van's ear he heard the sound of metal clashing, he finally managed to force himself to spin round. Shinzo glowing hand sparked against Booth's kodachi. He pushed the vice admiral away but was instantly kicked in the face by a blurred movement. Shinzo was impossibly fast. Booth skidded backward and quickly wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Dragon tongue. If we work together we may be able to hold him off." Booth's eyes quickly darted to the right watching something that wasn't there, instantly Shinzo disappeared then materialised in Booth's eye line and lunged toward the two pirate captains. Booth swung his kodachi in a fluid movement. He seemed to cut Shinzo across the chest but the young marine just skidded backwards smiling. The moment Shinzo came to a halt Booth brought his blade to his right hand side twisting his body with the movement, he then placed his left hand over the blade which began to glow green. He suddenly jabbed the blade forwards.

"Jade Lance!" The blade extended toward Shinzo with incredible speed. The marine boy raised a hand lazily producing a glowing yellow barrier which deflected the attack up into the air.

"Foolish captain. Your attacks don't stand a chance against the abilities of my Seki-Seki no mi (Barrier Fruit). I have studied your devils fruit ability extensively hoping that one day I could kill the traitor of Dragons Pass. Toushi-Toushi no mi (X-ray Fruit) is nothing in the path of my might." He extended his arm with his fingers together and point toward Booth, a golden wall of energy surged toward him sideways; it was almost paper thin but tore through the ground like water. Moments before contact Van dived across knocking Booth out of the way. The wall shattered like golden glass as Shinzo clenched his fist ending the attack. The other members of both crews and the marines looked on, with a mixture of awe and intimidation in their eyes. Van blew fire onto his fists then immediately slammed them into the ground.

"Overdrive." the fire roared up his arms and legs then he vanished into a flaming blur appearing next Shinzo. "Ryu Bullet."

The movements of the two boys were impossible to follow but it ended with Van's fist gripped tightly in Shinzo's glowing hand. Shinzo drew his hand back as it glowed yellow and became pointed. Van breathed in deep and blew a jet of flames into Shinzo's face, the flames forked around the barrier surrounding the young marines head torching the on looking marines that were stood behind him. The flames were enough of a distraction for Van to break free of Shinzo's grip. The two boys blurred out of sight as they collided; only a rapid series of flames and glowing yellow lights could be seen as they fought. Shinzo suddenly came into view holding out a glowing yellow fist. Van skidded along the floor on his back holding his chest then flipped backwards back onto his feet.

Booth appeared behind Shinzo a foot above his head slashing diagonally downwards, the marine disappeared and attacked from behind. Booth stuck his blade into the floor and used it to anchor himself as he flipped forwards kicking Shinzo in the chest. The moment he landed Booth spun round, his kodachi glowed brightly. "Emerald Blaze." A glowing green wave of energy erupted from the short blade like flames engulfing both Shinzo and the group of marines behind him. When the attack cleared Shinzo stood unharmed, cocooned in his golden barriers but the marines behind him writhed in pain on the floor despite looking completely untouched. Without looking Shinzo extended his arm toward Van sending a barrier cutting through the floor toward him.

"Soru." Booth appeared in front of Van with his blade held horizontally, the barrier pushed Booth effortlessly backwards his feet skidding through the dirt, he pushed his blade against the edge of the barrier spinning himself off to one side then immediately shot toward Shinzo once more. The moment he began moving forward another barrier ploughed toward him, too fast to stop.

A yellow blur appeared in front of Booth. Haze raised Aka-Hana horizontally glowing pink as the barrier collided with it. Haze was forced backward into Booth knocking them both off their feet. "Sakura wave." Sakura petals flowed out of the blade either side of the barrier pressed against it. The petals rushed toward Shinzo his eyes widened and his fist clenched, the attack against Haze and Booth shattered and he quickly erected another barrier around himself. The Sakura shattered against the yellow glass like shield. The second she was free of the attacking barrier Haze glowed blue and let off three shots of 'Konki Bakuha' which smashed against the barrier that still surrounded Shinzo. She glowed yellow again and rushed toward Shinzo then began circling him with such speed she became a solid yellow ring around him. Before she could begin her attack Shinzo sent a barrier out in a random direction Haze slammed into it stopping her dead in her tracks. She grabbed her head leaning on her blade to steady herself as her head spun in a daze. Shinzo extended his free hand toward her sending another barrier to the currently defenceless red head.

Hazes shadow bent out of shape then grew out of the floor into a thick; jet black, wall. The Golden attack cut two feet into the six foot thick wall then stopped. Naye appeared from behind Haze, a look of sheer rage on his face. He threw his hands forward. "Ten Fist." ten large shadowy void hands emerged from the wall and balled into fists before shooting along the length of the Barrier as it shattered. The fists began slamming into Shinzo who blocked them continuously with small circular barriers that hovered over his hands. Booth and Van emerged from nowhere behind him, they both began attacking. Booth unleashed a constant torrent of slashes with his kodachi while Van let loose a barrage of flaming strikes from both his hands and feet still in 'Overdrive'. Shinzo turned and began blocking the two captains' attacks with one arm while simultaneously continuing to deflect Naye's void fists with the other. While the fighting had been going on, Orso had pulled a series of canons from his mouth all of which were at least four times his size. He set up the artillery in a line carefully aiming them to a specific spot then jammed his hand back into his mouth and pulled out a flamethrower that was proportioned to his miniature size then aimed it along the canon fuses. Loca had also set up a canon, hers in the form of her mega launcher which she had held over her shoulder. The two pirates fired there respective weapons toward Shinzo as he fought off the incoming attacks. The moment the canons fired he glanced across to see twenty projectiles flying toward him. At the last possible second Van and Booth backed off, Naye crouched surrounding himself and the still dazed Haze with a jet black void dome. The various rockets and canon balls were aimed perfectly all connecting with Shinzo and erupting into an explosive mushroom cloud. The moment the initial blast was over, the now conscious Haze and Naye emerged from their black shell. Haze glowed pink and Naye leapt into the air with an extra boost from a burst of void underneath him. Once in the air Naye raised a hand above his head forming a ball of void the size of a large boulder a few inches above it. He spread out his fingers making spikes emerge all over the huge sphere. Van and booth also readied themselves the moment the explosion had finished. Booth brought his blade to his side, it glowed green as his left hand hovered over it. Van went back into 'Overdrive' and brought both his fists to his side. The four pirates unleashed their attacks into the epicentre of the prior blast in unison.

"Sakura Storm!"

"Black Star Blitz!"

"Jade Lance!"

"Ryu Canon!"

The four attacks hit at the same time causing a multi coloured blast of immense proportions. A goliath orb of fire, void and green and pink energy swirled and expanded from the point of impact. The pirates including Loca and Orso gathered together as Naye created a shield around them from void, re-enforced by Hazes green energy shield. The ground rumbled as the explosion passed over them. The shields dropped and they looked into the enormous crater in the ground. It was impossible to see the middle due to the clouds of dirt and dust. A golden glint became visible in the centre then suddenly expanded knocking all of the pirates backwards.

"Pathetic pirates. You are scum. You cannot hope to stand up to a representative of the world government's majesty." Shinzo slowly walked out of the crater he had a small cut on his head but was otherwise unharmed. "Now I will show you true power." A circular glowing barrier ring formed above his head, another formed a large blade around his right arm and another, a shield on his left. Two more barriers emerged from his back moulding into wings. "Engel." The vice admirals feet slowly left the floor as he floated up into the sky. He raised his bladed right hand; the blade grew until it was about fifty foot in length. "Blade of Justice." He swung the colossal energy sword effortlessly toward the pirates on the floor, it connected with the floor cutting through it like it was nothing.

Ayanne who had, until now, not been in the fight, stepped aside lowering a thick perimeter of carbon revealing Tiggeh who was now floating cross legged glowing purple with tarot cards circling round her glowing brightly. A purple ring of strange symbols surrounded Shinzo. Tiggeh opened her eyes which were also glowing purple, "Good bye Vice admiral." Her voice echoed like it was far away and close at the same time. With a flash Shinzo vanished. Tiggeh immediately stopped glowing and fell to the floor, snoring loudly. Booth opened one of his eyes which had been tightly shut in preparation for the incoming attack. Beside him was a deep groove in the floor from Shinzo's blade, it stopped millimetres away from his body. A breath of relief escaped his mouth. Him and the other pirates pulled themselves to their feet looking at the destruction around them. The ground was scarred, trees decimated the bodies of unconscious or dead marines scattered around, not to mention the enormous crater that was now beginning to fill with water from the sea.

"No time to celebrate guys we have to get out of here as soon as possible." Booth brushed dust off his marine's captain jacket which was now torn around the edges and quite battered. "Omega!" A mechanical clunk came from Booth's ship a metallic dome rose into view followed by an emotionless face. It had black eyes with small lights at the centre.

"Yes captain." The figures voice was as cold and emotionless as his face; he spoke in a slightly mechanical sounding monotone voice. He had 0-MAG-4 written on the side of his head.

"You useless bag of bolts. We could of used some help here." Booth yelled a vein pulsed in his temple.

"You did not request assistance captain." Omega replied bluntly.

Booth quickly calmed down and lit a cigarette; he let out a long puff of smoke. "So help me god you will learn to take some initiative. Get Tig onto the ship she's worn herself out, poor little thing." He smirked as he said the last few words. Despite being asleep Tiggeh's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. A look of panic appeared on Booth's face and his glasses fell down his nose slightly revealing the terror in his twitching eyes. _She couldn't of heard that could she? Oh man she is gonna hurt me. _

"Affirmative." Omega stood up revealing his massive ten foot tall frame; he wore black slack pants, black boots and a white T-shirt with the world government symbol on it. He dropped off the side of the ship with a loud thud and a shake through the ground then plodded over to Tiggeh picking her up into the crook of one of his arms like a normal person would hold a baby. He then turned and slowly walked up the gang plank back onto the ship. Orso ran up after him and began getting the ship ready.

"Guess this is bye for now dragon tongue." Booth said as he walked up to his ship waving a hand lazily over his shoulder. He stopped half way up the gang plank and turned to look at Haze lowering his glasses for a better look, his glowing green eyes narrowed then he turned putting his glasses back up and boarded his ship. Within minutes the boat had left shore and was sailing into the distance.

The dragon tongue pirates stood staring at their surroundings in a combination of exhaustion and disbelief. All of them looked on the brink of passing out. Eventually the world came flooding back to them one by one. Van's eyes widened as he came to his senses.

"Mik." He quickly scrambled onto the ship and began looking round frantically. The rest of the crew also came aboard and began searching aswell as setting sail. Half an hour later Naye appeared with a note in his hand.

"Guy's I found this you're going to want to hear it." The crew gathered round him as he cleared his throat and began to read.

"_Dear Dragon Tongue Van Niko._

_My name is Captain Panther Tibeki of the Wildmen Pirates. THE MANLIEST CREW ON THE SEAS. This letter is to inform you that we have stolen your dragon. A TRUE MAN tells another when he has bested them, only a COWARD sneaks around as an unknown. I have heard great tails of Captain Niko's daring and ingenious rescue of his nakama from a marine prison and I am eager to match swords with him (that is a metaphor I don't have a sword). The winner will keep the dragon forever and the loser will… lose. I have headed north to Yinzu Island. If you a truly the MAN I think you are I will see you here for our MANLY battle. We will be waiting Dragon Tongue pirates._

_Yours Macho-ly _

_Panther Tibeki._

_PS. We also took milk because we were all out. MANLY!"_

The crew stood in stunned silence. Looking at each other.

"Ingenious rescue?" Ayanne said trying not to laugh at this inappropriate time.

"Why does it say manly so many times?" Loca said quietly with a look of confusion on her face.

"What are you waiting for we have to save Mik from this master of manliness. To Yinzu Island!" Van yelled pointing with fiery determination in his eyes. The rest of the crew collapsed to the floor in despair and disbelief.

The ship changed course and sailed full speed ahead. It's destination Yinzu Island.

(--)

On the Grim Pirates' ship Booth sat staring at a singular spot in deep thought. He didn't even here the sound of Tiggeh approaching behind him.

"What are you doing captain?" She sat down next to him. He sat up straight shaking in fear, _Did she hear me? She'll be mad if she did. _

"Er-um just thinking bout the girl. I had another look at her."

"What did you see?" Tiggeh looked at him with a combination of concern and interest.

"You know the usual. Bones, organs, veins and … something else." He looked up toward the sky still looking as though he was pondering something very important.

"Do you really think she has it?"

"If she does she doesn't know about it or she would have used it against Shinzo. Possibly limitless power and she doesn't even know she's got it. If you truly want it, you may have to take it from her." He looked across at Tiggeh and she looked away gazing at the clouds as they passed by.

"I'll do whatever it takes to get my hands on it. The philosopher's stone."

* * *

**A/N:** Well hope you enjoyed this one. Mostly fighting very little talking really. Considering the opponent they were facing the battle had to be HUGE-ish and I only pray I did it justice. Now then 0-MAG-4 (Omega) is the neuron spark of Kisdota-The Freak Gamer and a fine piece of design he is too =). Panther Tebiki is ye olde creation of stevethemime and will be making his full appearance soon =D. I will start the 'Grim Pirates' story when I get the chance and will submit it at the same time as the next chapter so if either isn't out for a while don't panic It won't be that I've fallen off the face of the Earth again. That is all. Go about your business... after you review and submit me characters of course =[). Thank you and good night. *Bows, falls over and crawls away*.


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